Stamp duty bills leap four-fold

THE average stamp duty bill paid by UK home-buyers has risen more than four-fold since Labour came to power, it emerged today.

Purchasers of residential properties paid an average £2,560 in 2003-04, compared to £570 in 1997-98, according to figures released by Treasury minister Ivan Lewis in response to questions from the Conservatives.

The figures emerged as Britain's biggest mortgage lender, Halifax, issued a report suggesting annual house price growth has fallen to 5.7% - its slowest rate for four years.

Shadow local government secretary Caroline Spelman said: 'Labour's soaring stealth taxes - stamp duty, council tax and the abolition of mortgage interest tax relief - have made it more difficult to get on the housing ladder.

'The Government's limited key worker housing schemes will not help the hundreds of thousands of young people who cannot get on the housing ladder.

'Higher taxes have made it more difficult to put down a large deposit, forcing people into a more expensive mortgage than they would otherwise pay.'

Chancellor Gordon Brown increased the level below which residential properties are exempt from stamp duty to £120,000 in his March budget, following complaints that rising house prices had lifted a majority of homes above the old £60,000 threshold.

The duty is charged at 1% on purchases between £120,000 and £250,000, 3% between £250,001 and £500,000 and 4% for more valuable properties.