Conservatives Want to Scrap Stamp Duty: What Abolition Would Cost and Who Benefits

On 8 October 2025, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch announced at the party conference in Manchester that a future Conservative government would abolish stamp duty entirely on primary residences.

Badenoch called stamp duty a "bad tax that gums up the housing market" and said it penalises people for buying their home.

The pledge covers only main homes. Buy-to-let properties and second homes would continue to attract the standard rates plus the 5% additional dwelling surcharge.

Since then, the Conservative Party has launched a formal petition calling on the current Labour government to scrap stamp duty on main residences, gathering signatures over recent weeks.

Source: BBC News

SDLT raised £11.6bn in 2025, making it one of the largest property-related revenue sources for the Treasury.

The Conservatives argue that increased housing market activity and wider economic growth would partially offset the revenue loss. The IFS is more sceptical, noting the policy does not address the underlying supply constraints that drive prices.

To replace the revenue, the government would need to raise taxes elsewhere, restructure council tax, or introduce a new annual property levy.

The headline benefit looks dramatic, but the distribution is uneven. 40% of all homes nationally are already below the £125,000 nil-rate band (standard buyers) or the £300,000 nil-rate band (first-time buyers), meaning they pay little or no stamp duty already.

The higher the property price, the larger the absolute saving. 60% of all SDLT receipts come from properties in Southern England, so abolition would disproportionately benefit wealthier buyers in more expensive areas.

Calculate your current stamp duty bill to see exactly what you pay today and what you would save under abolition.

Two perspectives dominate the debate.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies calls SDLT "one of the most economically damaging taxes" because it discourages people from moving to take new jobs or to downsize. Abolition would remove this distortion and could boost labour market mobility.

Cambridge University research found that abolishing stamp duty generates welfare gains of approximately 3.57%.

The tension: economists broadly agree SDLT is a bad tax, but many warn that a straight abolition without supply-side reform would inflate prices rather than improve affordability.

An OnTheMarket survey found that only 12% of homebuyers and sellers want to keep the current stamp duty system unchanged.

Paula Higgins, chief executive of the Homeowners Alliance, has cited data showing 800,000 homeowners shelved moving plans in the past two years specifically because of stamp duty costs.

Read the full stamp duty reform debate for a broader look at the policy options under consideration.

The Conservatives are currently in opposition and cannot implement this policy.

Labour has shown no appetite for abolition. The Spring Statement in March 2026 passed without any stamp duty changes, and the Autumn Budget 2025 also left rates untouched. See our coverage of the Spring Statement 2026: no reform announced.

Historical precedent is mixed: stamp duty holidays were introduced temporarily during COVID but then allowed to expire. Wholesale abolition represents a larger and more permanent fiscal commitment.

The most likely near-term scenario is targeted threshold reform rather than full abolition, with the Autumn Budget 2026 as the next realistic window for any significant change.