One in four buyers now pay stamp duty of £7,500 or more, according to a new campaign that aims to force a cut in this "unfair double tax".
The Stamp Out Stamp Duty campaign, launched by the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA, claims the tax makes it harder for buyers to get on the property ladder or trade up to a larger home
The TPA has published data covering every local authority in England and Wales, to show how much of a burden stamp duty is in every region of the country.
While home-buyers in London and the South East are inevitably hardest hit, more people across the country are being charged 3% stamp duty, which the TPA claims acts as a barrier for an increasing number of first-time buyers and hard-working families wanting to buy a new home.
Stamp duty also discourages older people from downsizing, and makes it more expensive for people to find move home to find a new job, it says.
Families buying a home for between £250,000 and £500,000 pay between £7,500 and £15,000 in stamp duty.
The TPA has set up a new campaign website, Stampoutstampduty.org, in a bid to launch a grassroots campaign to force a cut in this "hated tax". It shows how much stamp duty costs in their area, and encourages them to send a customised message direct to their local MP, urging them to support a cut in this tax.
TPA chief executive Matthew Sinclair said: “Owning your own home is an important milestone, but for many families it seems harder and harder to reach. Ministers have done nothing to ease the burden imposed by Stamp Duty, which is an unfair double tax that gets in the way of would-be first-time buyers and others thinking about moving.
"Instead they have made things worse with new thresholds and new, higher rates. The Government needs to act on ministers' rhetoric about getting people onto the property ladder and cut this unfair tax.”
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