Bellway, the Newcastle-based FTSE 250 housebuilder, used its trading update on 11 August to ask the government for an immediate cut to stamp duty, paired with a government-backed deposit support scheme for first-time buyers. Chief executive Jason Honeyman framed both as demand measures: “In order to ease affordability constraints and stimulate demand, an immediate reduction in stamp duty alongside a Government-backed deposit support scheme for first-time buyers would both drive economic growth and accelerate the delivery of much-needed new homes across the country.”
The part of the story that matters for anyone timing a UK purchase is the response that already exists. The Independent reported that Prime Minister Andy Burnham last month ruled out a significant overhaul of stamp duty at the Autumn Budget. Burnham has set out a different route to the same problem: in an address in Manchester he said the country is “in a housing trap” and pledged that his government would oversee the “biggest council house building programme since the post-war period”, using vacant public land to reduce costs, alongside a focus on higher-density development in existing towns to reinvigorate high streets and protect green spaces.
So this is a request from the industry, not a signalled policy change. It is worth reading in that register: a listed developer with a commercial interest in transaction volumes is asking for a transaction tax to be cut, and the government has already declined to do it at the next fiscal event.
Bellway’s own numbers show why it is asking. The company reported completions up 10.8% to 9,695 homes in the year to 31 July, with underlying operating profit set to rise to around £320 million from £303.5 million. But it warned that short-term demand remains “uncertain” because of persistent building cost inflation and widespread consumer caution, and said that after positive trading early in the spring selling season it has seen a “moderation” in customer demand since April, which it attributed to the uptick in mortgage rates.
References
The Independent — UK housebuilder urges Andy Burnham to slash stamp duty to boost housing market
