Stamp Duty reform “very unlikely” says Conservative housing guru

An MP demanding a root and branch reform of property taxation, including scrapping stamp duty, says the chance of fundamental reform is “very remote”.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative back-bencher who is the outgoing chairman of the Hunters Group - soon to be part of The Property Franchise Group - made the admission in a Lunchtime Learning video interview with industry trainer Stephen J Brown. 

Hollinrake says there’s undoubtedly going to be more tax rather than less tax in the future as spending on Coronavirus has massively increased the deficit - it is forecast to reach 314 per cent of the size of the UK economy in coming years.

“I personally think we should restructure all property taxation - council tax, stamp duty, wrap it all into one. Make it more proportional to the value of the property” says Hollinrake, who leads a new pressure group of Tory MPs called the Property Research Group.

However, he feels that  changes to tax are political rather than economic, so it is unlikely large scale change will be implemented. There may be a long-awaited revaluation for council tax purposes, but he cannot see a root-and-branch change to stamp duty which gathers £8 billion a year for the Treasury.

Brown’s interview covers a lot of territory, from Hollinrake’s personal background to his views on PropTech and how conveyancing has changed - not necessarily for the better, in his opinion.

You can see the interview here.

Meanwhile the final details of the takeover of Hunters, for around £24m, have been made available to shareholders of that firm and of TPFG. After a formal vote, Hunters shares are to be suspended from trading on the Alternative Investment Market (part of the London Stock Exchange) in mid-March.

On the same day, new TPFG shares will be issued which are part of the ‘cash and equity’ deal Hunters shareholders were offered to win their approval.