The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) is urging the government to announce a reprieve for the end of the first-time buyer stamp duty concession.

The concession is currently due to end in March 2012.

The trade body says that its analysis shows that, after the previous stamp duty concession that ended in December 2009, the spike in sales of exempted properties that had pre-empted the end of the concession was matched by a corresponding slump.

HM Revenue & Customs is due to publish an impact assessment of the current concession this autumn, but the CML believes that its withdrawal could distort the pattern of monthly transactions in a similar way to the ending of the previous concession. This would be unhelpful, given the fragile state of market confidence.

The CML believes that there continues to be a good case for fundamental reform of the “slab”” structure of residential stamp duty