During Covid the chancellor of the exchequer came up with a brilliant idea to keep the economy moving. He lifted the threshold for paying stamp duty land tax to £500,000, freeing a vast swathe of properties, particularly outside London, from this ridiculous tax on moving. The strategy worked like magic.
House sales improved, estate agents, solicitors and conveyancers were busy, mortgage brokers burnt the midnight oil, builders and decorators refurbished homes, carpets were laid, new curtains were put up. People moved to take up new jobs or get more space for growing families. Older people found homes more suited to their time of life and freed up cash to spend in the economy.
Then, with a vaccine sloshing around in people’s veins, the Treasury looked
