James Cleverly: I would abolish stamp duty

The former home secretary wants the ‘bad tax’ to be scrapped in order to get more people on the housing ladder

Conservative leadership contender James Cleverly has said he wants to abolish stamp duty on all homes.
Writing for The Telegraph, the former home secretary called for the “bad tax” to be eventually scrapped for all buyers of residential properties, in order to get more people on the housing ladder.
The leadership contest he is fighting is set to intensify this week. The first round of voting by MPs takes place on Wednesday and one candidate will be eliminated.
Mr Cleverly’s vow to cut stamp duty comes with tax increases expected in the Budget in October.
Currently, stamp duty must be paid on homes worth more than £250,000, or £425,000 for first-time buyers. The rate gradually tapers up, from 5 per cent to 12 per cent for the most expensive properties.
The burden on first-time buyers was temporarily eased in 2022, and the Tories had vowed to make this change permanent in their election manifesto.
But Mr Cleverly has said he would make it his ambition to go further, scrapping the “perverse” levy entirely for anyone purchasing a home, regardless of the value of the property or whether they have owned one before.
He argued this would remove blocks on older people downsizing and young families upsizing, allowing for more movement in the market.
It would form part of a wider drive to boost growth and turn “more young people into capitalists”, he said.
Tory leadership race
Mr Cleverly will deliver a major speech on Monday and Kemi Badenoch, the bookies’ favourite to replace Rishi Sunak, is also set to hold a campaign event, when she will call on the Tories to “focus on renewal”.
She is expected to say: “If the Conservatives want to become worthy of the British people’s trust again, we can’t just sit around pointing out how terrible Labour are… fun as it is.”
Yesterday, Robert Jenrick held his own leadership rally in Westminster, where he claimed the Government’s October Budget will be a “declaration of war on the middle classes”.
He said he believed in his “core” that the Tories could win the next election, pledging to “sock it to Keir Starmer”.
Tom Tugendhat and Dame Priti Patel also gave speeches last week.
The threshold for first-time buyers to avoid paying stamp duty was raised from £300,000 to £425,000 in Liz Truss’s mini-Budget of 2022. However, this change was only temporary and is due to end in March 2025.
The standard rates for people buying their second or any subsequent homes are 0 per cent up to £250,000, 5 per cent on the next £675,000, 10 per cent on the next £575,000, and 12 per cent on anything above £1.5 million.
In his article for The Telegraph, Mr Cleverly wrote: “The truth is, too many young, aspirational, hard-working people have deserted us and our ideas. 
“Just as Thatcher gave council tenants the right to buy, we need to give young people a bigger stake in our society.”
He said the Tories had reached a “survive or die moment” following their historic defeat at the general election, adding: “For the Conservative Party to win the next election, we need to resell our Conservative values, be the party of prosperity, and remake the argument for capitalism.”
In his speech on Monday, Mr Cleverly will warn of a “crisis in confidence in capitalism” and urge the Tories to be “honest and realistic about the role of the state”.
He is expected to say: “The solutions of the Left don’t and won’t work.”
“That means being honest and realistic about the role of the state. About what it should and can do, and what it should not and can not. The state should focus on doing fewer things very well, not everything badly.”
Mr Cleverly will add: “We accept that the state has a primary duty to protect its people and its borders. But Conservatives must be honest about the trade-offs in doing these things properly.”
He will also urge his party to “think and act like Conservatives again”, adding: “We accomplished much in Government, but our division and behaviour obscured the victories and compounded the mistakes.”
The field of six leadership candidates – which also includes Mel Stride – will be whittled down to four by the time of the Conservative conference at the end of the month.
By James Cleverly
I have always said we need to do the jobs that need doing in the order they need to be done. The first, for the Conservative Party, is to get our house in order. 
That means rediscovering our unity and our discipline. But we must also unite over a vision for our country to give people a reason to vote Conservative again. And that means offering the right solutions to the problems in front of us, whether it’s increasing defence spending in an unstable world or providing the solutions to complex challenges, like global mass migration.
I believe one of the biggest problems we face today is a creeping crisis of confidence in capitalism. For too many people in Britain today, it feels like life is too hard, unbalanced, and stacked against them. People will vote for Starmer’s statism if they don’t feel capitalism is working for them.
We must remake the argument for capitalism to be successful again. Capitalism is the bedrock of our success. Free markets and free trade drive economic growth, which is what makes all of us better off. Growth increases opportunity, brings people out of poverty, and creates the wealth we can use to invest in our public services.
We left Labour a growing economy. The fastest in the G7. But just to reach our pre-2008 average annual growth of two per cent would seem like a minor miracle today. We need to unlock real growth again, turn more young people into capitalists and ensure nobody is in any doubt who is going to support the wealth creators in this county.
When my father started his business it was under Margaret Thatcher’s government and it thrived. When I started my business it was under Gordon Brown’s Labour and it didn’t survive the 2007/8 crash. The Conservative Party was the obvious political home for someone like me. I will make us the party of business again. 
We need simpler, lower taxes, on business and on work, delivered in a sensible way, with sound money. That means prioritising, and making the right decisions on public expenditure. And it means less regulation too. We can’t keep adding to the burden of the private sector and expect growth to go unaffected.
At the last election, you had to be in your 60s for it to be more likely than not you voted Conservative. That is unsustainable and has to change. The truth is, too many young, aspirational, hard-working people have deserted us and our ideas.
Just as Thatcher gave council tenants the right to buy, we need to give young people a bigger stake in our society.
It’s why we were right to cut stamp duty for first-time buyers. But I want our ambition to be to abolish stamp duty for residential properties completely. It’s a bad tax that is stopping too many people getting on the housing ladder. It disincentivises housing transactions, stopping older people from downsizing and young families from upsizing, and slows the building of new homes. 
As Conservatives, we should root out bad taxes and avoid perverse effects on markets.
But we shouldn’t stop there. We must find other innovative ways to unlock the capital for our young people that could provide the security of their own home, an investment in the future as safe as houses, and somewhere to start a family.
This is a survive or die moment for us. If we believe in freedom and choice, keeping more of your own money because you know how best to spend it, we should put our money where our mouth is.
To give younger voters a stake in capitalism and a reason to vote Conservative again, it’s also vital we build a lot more homes. We should do whatever we can to build up, to build the homes where they are needed. I want our cities to be as dense as those of our European counterparts.
For the Conservative Party to win the next election, we need to resell our conservative values, be the party of prosperity, and remake the argument for capitalism. We need to prioritise driving economic growth, not through high migration but through lower taxes and cutting regulation, and by giving working people a bigger stake in our society. 
Under my leadership this would be one of the central messages of the Conservative Party. With the right Conservative approach to the big challenges of the day, we can win again and make sure our country’s best days are ahead of us.
James Cleverly is a former home secretary and a candidate for leader of the Conservative Party