Scrapping stamp duty could help to ease the UK’s housing crisis by removing a barrier to development, according to a report commissioned by Santander.

 

The study, which was carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), claims the tax eats into developers’ profits, meaning there is less incentive for them to build.

 

According to the report, the tax stopped 146,000 transactions from going ahead between 2012 and 2017 at a time of an acute supply shortage.

 

Official figures show housebuilding has slowed from 327,000 per year in the 1970s to just 164,000 in the decade up to 2016.

 

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