A major estate agency firm has urged George Osborne to address Stamp Duty in the upcoming Autumn Statement.

Paul Smith, CEO of Haart, said: “If The Chancellor wants to avoid the Ebenezer Scrooge tag on Thursday, he should revisit the spectre of stamp duty which is a major contributing factor to the current property market deadlock. A stamp duty holiday on homes under £600,000, will get the logjam moving with an increase in supply of property for sale and will keep prices from spiralling.

“While it’s true that stamp duty currently rakes in around £2.12 billion annually for the Treasury, it is less than half of what the government is reportedly set to spend on its aircraft carrier fighter jet programme – in excess of £5 billion – and a mere fraction of the total cost of the increasingly unpopular HS2 project.

“With more people putting their properties on the market and going through the moving process, buying goods and services, the VAT till will be ringing, giving the Chancellor his own Christmas cheer.”