Article: Chancellor is urged to suspend stamp duty

Calls to suspend stamp duty for homebuyers could help to kick- start the region's uncertain housing market, experts have said.

There have been calls for Chancellor Alistair Darling to consider freezing the tax which some say has reached punishing levels.

Such a move would bring echoes of the early 1990s, when John Major's Government suspended stamp duty on certain properties for eight months to galvanise a stagnant housing market.

Housing experts claim the idea should be revived if Mr Darling does not slash the tax in his forthcoming Budget.

Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, claimed a property slump could push the government into a "moratorium" ...

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