Sajid Javid denies floating idea of stamp duty for sellers

Sajid Javid has quashed speculation that he could shift stamp duty on to sellers rather than buyers, just two days after suggesting he could look at the idea.

The chancellor had appeared to float the idea in an interview with the Times, as he prepares for his first spending review.

When asked about changing who pays stamp duty to save first-time buyers paying any tax, he said: “I’m looking at various options. I’m a low-tax guy. I want to see simpler taxes.”

The idea prompted some warnings that it could hit older people who are planning to downsize to smaller homes, which could be problematic with the Conservative party’s core voters going into an election.

Two days after the original article, Javid tweeted on Sunday: “More speculation about stamp duty this morning. To be clear, I never said to the Times I was planning to put it on sellers, and I wouldn’t support that. I know from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government that we need bold measures on housing – but this isn’t one of them.”

The idea had been promoted by the AAT, an accountancy and tax industry group, which said it had met Boris Johnson to discuss the proposal earlier in the summer and had had an exchange of correspondence with the chancellor.

After Javid’s initial interview, Phil Hall, AAT head of public policy, said it would not be a panacea, but it would be “considerably fairer, simpler, more effective and cheaper than the current stamp duty regime”.

Javid will set out his spending priorities in a one-year review of departmental spending in the coming weeks in a move that appears designed to give away funding for schools, hospitals and the police before an election.

Any big fiscal moves would be dealt with in a budget which is due this autumn, possibly after the UK has left the EU on no-deal terms on 31 October.