Conservatives would scrap stamp duty, Badenoch announces

The next Conservative government has said it will abolish stamp duty on the sale of main houses.

Badenoch received a standing ovation from Tory activists in Manchester: “We will help realize the dream of home ownership for millions.”

He said stamp tax on scrap – Tax on the sale of houses in England and Northern Ireland – will “unlock a fairer and more aspirational society” and help people of all ages.

It came after a speech full of new policies aimed at attracting political attention and drawing clear lines of division with his rivals.

Badenoch has been under pressure to deliver the talk of his political career, ending speculation he will face a leadership challenge as his party continues to trail Labor in the polls and reform Britain.

His 45-minute address was peppered with jokes and personal stories and went down well in the room, where — unlike some other speeches this week — it was standing room only.

And he only mentioned reform explicitly twice, in his speeches at Leaders’ Labor and Liberal Democrat conferences.

Instead, he concentrated his fire on labour, accusing Sir Keir Starmer of leading a “weak and directionless” government that had left the country “a mess”.

His announcement about stamp duty was kept under wraps until he delivered it, and he staunchly said: “Stamp duty is a bad tax.

“We must deregulate our housing market, because a society where no one can buy or move is a society where social mobility dies.”

Stamp duty is paid by people buying homes worth more than £125,000 – but first-time buyers are exempt on properties worth more than £300,000.

Buyers of higher-value homes pay a percentage of the home’s value.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering scrapping her budget in November, but Badenoch has claimed it will be increased significantly.

Stamp duty brought in an estimated £13.9bn in the last financial year, but the bulk of this is from outhouses and other buildings.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that removing stamp duty on primary homes would cost around £4.5 billion.

The Conservatives said they had “carefully” estimated the policy would cost £9bn.

Badenoch insisted he could meet the pledge because it would come from £47bn in planned savings from the welfare budget and foreign aid announced earlier this week.

Under Tory plans, stamp duty would be abolished entirely on “primary residences” and would not apply to “additional properties, properties purchased by companies or properties purchased by non-UK residents”.

Stamp duty does not apply in Scotland and Wales, which have separate property taxes. The Welsh Conservatives have said they will increase the vote if they win power in May’s election.

In his conference speech, Badenoch claimed the Conservative party was “gushing with ideas” to fix the “broken model” that he said was holding the country back.

He has pledged to scrap a range of government policies, from new employment rights to VAT to private school fees.

And it went through some of the big policy announcements the party has made this week:

His promise to end the “Family Farm Tax” drew a big cheer in the room, and his proposals to cut welfare spending and Take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights It also fell well.

In a sustained attack on the Labor government, he said: “All they have delivered is a doomsday cycle of higher taxes, weaker borders and months of chaos.

“They had a plan to win, but no power plan.

“There is no vision for Britain. They know how to make promises, but they don’t know how to deliver them.”

Acknowledging the Conservatives’ dire opinion poll ratings and recent local election losses, he said voters were “still angry” with his party.

And in a swipe at reform, he said it had led to ways “that in normal times would never have been considered a serious option for government, making promises they could never keep.”

But the speech mainly aimed to emphasize that the conservative party was under new leadership – prepared to make “bold” and “difficult” decisions that its rivals could not.