Thoughts on today’s Autumn Statement from Sebastian Murphy, Group Director at JLM Mortgage Network:

22 November 2023

“This Autumn Statement presented the Government with an opportunity to really move the dial on housing market activity, and to introduce some fresh incentives to get people moving and buying. This was an open goal that the Chancellor appears to have missed spectacularly – we have called for a stamp duty holiday for older homeowners who want to downsize but are put off by the large amount of taxation they would need to pay, but nothing of the kind has been proposed.

Such a measure would encourage older, single people to move into more suitable accommodation while freeing up larger, family homes for those who are moving up the ladder and want these types of properties in order to meet the needs of their families. Getting the right people into the right homes would help a large number of people who feel they can’t move at the moment.

We need greater levels of supply desperately but a proposal which might allow homes to be split into two flats seems a retrograde measure which doesn’t tackle the types of homes people need or want to buy. There has been a lot of expectation about what might be announced today and this feels like a real damp squib for housing and mo