Berkeley Group has urged Chancellor John Healey to slash stamp duty on newly built homes, claiming the move would generate a £4.2bn windfall for the Treasury.
The London-listed housebuilder made the call in its Budget submission, warning that urgent action was needed to prevent the housing market from “sliding over an economic cliff edge.”
Berkeley argued that cutting the five per cent investor surcharge on new-build homes would unlock 30 per cent sales growth, delivering £4.2bn to the Exchequer.
The housebuilder also asked the government to cap stamp duty at one per cent for first-time buyers and downsizers, broadening its push for sweeping reform of the levy.
Sector rivals Bellway and Barratt Redrow, along with homes portal Rightmove, have previously joined calls for urgent government action on stamp duty.
Rob Perrins, the executive chairman of Berkeley, said in the group’s Budget submission: “Our position has always been that a stamp duty reduction on new-builds — especially around the investor surcharge, first-time buyers and downsizers — is the best and quickest lever.”
Perrins added: “This is still needed alongside Your First Home to restart homebuilding in urban areas.”
Housebuilders have ramped up pressure on the government in recent months, warning that soaring mortgage rates caused by the Iran war have battered market confidence across the sector.
Berkeley pointed to a “significant slowdown in the rate of new housing sales,” which have fallen by 56 per cent since 2022, dropping to 8,840 last year.
The group warned the Chancellor that if the government wanted to meet its high-profile commitment to deliver 1.5 million homes this Parliament, few policy measures could deliver such immediate impact.
Last week, Andy Burnham announced the Your First Home scheme, offering first-time buyers equity loans to help them onto the housing ladder, replacing pressure to reinstate George Osborne’s Help to Buy programme, which ran from 2013 to 2022.
Shares in leading housebuilders surged following the announcement, with analysts describing the scheme as a “big catalyst” for the sector.
However, property experts have cautioned that this demand-side measure will do little to address the building cost pressures that have soared since the Iran war began.
Perrins told the Treasury that Your First Home alone would not be enough to solve an “acute [housing] crisis, particularly in London,” underscoring Berkeley’s call for structural stamp duty reform.