Sunday, September 30, 2007

Abolishing stamp duty

Now I have to say that the idea of raising the stamp duty threshold to £250K is going to appeal to a lot of voters, especially in the south. The question is will it appeal north of Watford where the average house prices are significantly lower and we need votes? The raising of the threshold will effectively abolish the tax for the vast majority of people which is always appealing when you're buying the single biggest purchase of your life.

I'm wondering though what the Labour response to this will be though. The duty on house purchases cannot be a stable figure as it moves with the market so it won't be that easy to find a figure and then imply a cut to health serives, for example, as a result. Actually, in this 'new politics' world we keep being told we're in Brown will probably just nick the idea if it looks like it is hugely popular. That will of course be after he has rubbished it first though, because that is how it works now.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

These policies are certainly a decent start, but the big issues such as crime, immigration and the EU will make or break the conference.

kinglear said...

Reading through other parts of your blog which I had missed for a day or two due to work committments, it is clear that the Brown administration is terrified of anything that might look as if it is right - the Shrum point, the spin to anything that moves. etc etc.
The electorate may be the lumpen proletariat, but they ain't that stupid - rubbishing opponents is an opposition thing, not the work of some statesman leading the country. NuLabour has never quite grasped the difference.

Anonymous said...

So, it's only because it will gain votes that any policy is put forward, and not because it might possibly be the right thing to do. That's the implication of your blog.