Viewed as one of Britain's most hated taxes, the Welsh Conservatives have pledge to abolish Stamp Duty in Wales. Describing it as a ‘dreadful tax’, Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride, has stated that this tax, "means that people don’t downsize … people don’t move from one place to another readily to where the work is … it’s an appalling tax’.
The Centre for Policy Studies agrees and has commented that, "Kemi Badenoch is right to axe Britain's worst tax". They claim that cutting it would be one of the most cost-effective things a government could do. In particular, their research has found it to have been a drag on property transactions which has been detrimental to the British economy because there is a very strong correlation between the number of property transactions and the number of houses built.
Taking into account the past twenty years, there is evidence to show that, approximately, one new house is built for every ten property transactions. Scrapping the tax would make it easier for people to move house. This would then give builders the confidence to build more houses which would not only help boost the economy but also help in increasing home ownership.
