BBC Report 28/08/08 - PM & Chancellor announcement?

moike

Just watched the news on BBC1 and the reporter indicated that the Prime minister & Chancellor are preparing a statement for next week or soon after to cover fuel payment help and possibly an announcement about stamp duty.
Would be nice to get things confirmed / denied.
A few weeks away from completing a purchase myself, would be good to save some money, or to proceed knowing that I'm not going to miss out !

poppysarah

What would you do if they said it'd be next year?

I suspect it'll be a mini-fuel bonus they're announcing. Either that or residential property into sipps - thats the only thing that'd boost the housing market at the moment.

moike

poppysarah wrote: »

What would you do if they said it'd be next year?

Well I'd be very surprised to start with, but still move, confident that I wasn't missing out by a few days, I think it's unlikely that he'd say he was going to do something next year though..... but then it probably would not surprise me.

poppysarah wrote: »

I suspect it'll be a mini-fuel bonus they're announcing.

Perhaps, but I think pressure is on to confirm Stamp duty plans also

poppysarah wrote: »

Either that or residential property into sipps - thats the only thing that'd boost the housing market at the moment.

TBH I really don't mind which way they go, just as long as I know I'm not missing out by proceeding now.
Regards

lostinrates

Goodness, MORE uncertainty, just what the economy needs

fatpig_2

Don't expect too much. More hot air I suspect.

SquatNow

I suspect they will cave in and scrap stamp duty.

They never planned to, but the oposition and media set them up to do it by suggesting it, and forcing them to.

I'm off to start a rumour that brown plans to scrap income tax....

theGrinch

with these two clowns expect the unexpected. they will probably announce that they are possibly thinking about doing something about stamp duty sometime soon. either that or they will scrap stamp duty and introduce a tax on all property sales (in the small print)

Bf109

SquatNow wrote: »

I suspect they will cave in and scrap stamp duty.

Possibly. But the govt. is desperatley short of money. Any form of tax break is going to be difficult now.

moike

Quoted from the times

In an attempt to stem the tide, Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, and Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, are planning to announce an emergency “mortgage rescue” package next week.

Under the plans councils will be encouraged to offer low-income families at risk of repossession the chance to sell a stake of their houses in return for financial help. First-time buyers will also be given more council-backed assistance with deposits and town halls will be given extra money to buy up empty, unsold new property.

A more radical proposal under which councils would have been freed to compete as mortgage lenders with access to a pot of £2 billion in government borrowing has been vetoed by Mr Darling. Instead he is likely to extend a Bank of England guarantee designed to boost confidence among existing lenders.

It is understood that other options to kick-start the housing market, including a stamp duty holiday, are being held back for further consideration.

So perhaps no stamp duty holiday after all

ManAtHome

They will give everyone of voting age £20k (tax-free) in July 2010 (subject to terms and conditions).

geoffky

stamp duty holiday is a gimmick as prices are falling 5grand a month on the AVERAGE house price...