Ministers urged to extend or adapt stamp duty holiday
Banks have urged the Treasury to extend the stamp duty holiday rolled out to support the property sector amid the coronavirus pandemic beyond the March 31 cut-off, arguing that pushing the deadline back could prevent close to a quarter of a million sales from collapsing. Yorkshire Building Society estimates that 240,000 sales worth £58bn could miss the deadline. While some banks and those within the property sector are calling for the stamp duty holiday to be extended, others have mooted a technical change that would mean contracts had to be exchanged by the end of March, with current rules saying deals must be completed by the end of Q1 2021. Nitesh Patel from Yorkshire Building Society has called on ministers to give buyers three months to complete purchases if their mortgage offer has been accepted by the current cut-off. The stamp duty extension has already benefitted many motorsport business owners.