What started with the
Chancellor, Alistair Darling,
responding to an article in
the Sun concerning a possible Stamp
Duty ‘Holiday’ led, last month, to a
political row and media frenzy.
Whilst there has been speculation
that the idea was “floated” to test
opinion, or whether, as some have
suggested, it was leaked by Number
10 is, frankly, irrelevant. The result
was an immediate reaction by
consumers who, naturally enough,
immediately wondered whether they
should wait rather than buy now.
Various additional comments and
appearances by The Chancellor,
Treasury, Housing Minister Caroline
Flint and the Prime Minister himself,
failed to dampen the speculation. Within 24 hours I was receiving
numerous calls from members
asking me to do something to get the
Chancellor to end the speculation.
To be fair to him he neither
confirmed nor denied the possibility
of a Stamp Duty Holiday but this
problem could have been avoided
if he had just said that he hadn’t
decided anything. By leaving the
possibility open consumers were
bound to react and Back Bench
Labour MPs were reportedly furious
over the story’s handling.
By wading in, there was clearly a
risk that we could be accused of
making matters worse. However
the President and I felt that, as the
Chancellor had already caused the
damage, we may as well put forward
the NAEA view...
The need to make comment was
further highlighted by the fact
that the Housing Minister started
to accuse agents of “hyping the
situation” although I had pointed
out that this was the last thing
agents would want to do bearing
in mind the current state of the
market.
During the week, the media
attention increased and in order to
counter the “hype” accusation and
prove that there was more than just
anecdotal evidence we decided
to poll members via an electronic
survey.
Within an hour we had received 300
responses and over 1200 within 24
hours. After four days we closed the
survey having received a staggering
response of nearly 1400.
This is the largest response ever
received to one of our surveys and
it clearly demonstrated the real
concern members had over the
Chancellor’s comments.
- 75% of respondents stated that
their applicants had questioned
whether they should now wait
to see what the Chancellor was
going to do.
- 62% stated that current purchasers
were now questioning whether
they should still go ahead.
- Most worryingly 25% said that
they at least one sale had fallen
through as a direct result of the
remarks.
- 92% said that the Chancellor had
increased consumers concerns.
Bearing in mind that 97% of
respondents clearly indicated that
they wanted the NAEA to publicly
keep the pressure on the Chancellor
to make a statement now rather than
wait until the Pre-Budget Statement,
we released details of the survey to
the BBC TV. As a result the NAEA was
the second story, on the Saturday
evening’s news, following the events
in Georgia and appeared every half
hour on News 24. The story was
picked up by all the mainstream
papers and as I write this continues
to run.
The emails that we have sent to the
Chancellor and Housing Minister
suggesting a meeting have to date
been ignored. In these we pointed
out that an urgent statement was
required and that any decision had to be announced immediately to not
only end the speculation but to stop
any possibility of causing a market
distortion such as that seen when
the end to MIRAS was announced in
advance of the actual date.
I was, however, asked to meet the
Leader of the Opposition, David
Cameron MP and Philip Hammond,
the Shadow Chief Secretary to the
Treasury.
At this meeting I went through the
effect the Chancellor’s comments
have had and the general problems
with the property market together
with a wish list of possible solutions.
At the same time I was able to briefly
talk about HIPs, the buying and
selling process and other matters
such as problems with the planning
system and the control of agents.
The Conservatives clearly believe
that the Chancellor has handled the
situation very badly and are intending
to push for a position statement. In
any case it was a good opportunity
for us to meet with some senior
members of the Opposition party.
Hopefully by the time you read this
the Chancellor will have resolved
this problem as we will otherwise still
be battling on behalf of members.
Will the Stamp Duty 'holiday' happen, or is it just speculation?
