First-time buyers would be exempt from stamp duty when buying homes for less than £300,000 under a Labour government, Ed Miliband will say.

The Labour leader will call for urgent action to tackle low house-building levels and falling home ownership.

Under Labour’s plans, local residents would get “first call” on up to half of new homes in their area for a time.

The Conservatives said Labour’s plans were unfunded and they had cut stamp duty for most people since 2010.

Labour’s “panicky” announcement would cost more than twice as much as it was claiming, a Conservative spokesman added.

“There’s nothing more British than the dream of home ownership, and home ownership is out of reach for so many people in our country,” he will say.

“It’s the right thing to do to enable people to get back on the housing ladder and that’s what a Labour government will do.”

 

The centrepiece of Labour’s plan is a pledge to give first-time buyers a stamp duty “holiday” on purchases of under 300,000.

The measure would apply only in the first three years of a Labour government and, the party says, would cost £225m.

It would be funded by a clampdown on landlords who avoid tax, a cut in tax relief for landlords who fail to maintain properties and increased taxes for foreign property investors.

Buyers currently pay nothing on the first £125,000 of a home’s value and are then charged on a sliding scale, starting with 2% on the next £125,000, 5% on the following £675,000, 10% on the next £575,000 and 12% on homes over £1.5m.

Another Labour proposal is to give first-time buyers that have lived in an area for more than three years first refusal on up to half of homes built there, while ensuring new properties are also advertised locally.

“It is no good people seeing houses going up in their community, if they are then not able to buy them because they are snapped up by investors from overseas,” Mr Miliband will say.

Shadow Communities Secretary Hilary Benn told the BBC Labour envisaged giving local residents about two months to register their interest, saying this would “strike a fair balance” between helping people onto the housing ladder without damaging the mobility underpinning the market.

According to Land Registry figures published in February, the average house price in England and Wales is £180,252 and is below £300,000 in every region except London. The figure in the capital is £463,872

BBC