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This article was first published in Mortgage Introducer.
Andy Burnham has ruled out changes to stamp duty ahead of the Autumn Budget, but a senior mortgage industry figure says that is a missed opportunity, arguing a targeted relief scheme for downsizers could simultaneously unlock housing supply and accelerate the UK's push for energy efficiency.
Sebastian Murphy (pictured top), group director at JLM Mortgage Network, told Mortgage Introducer the prime minister's housing agenda would be best served by joining up two pressing policy challenges around the chronic shortage of family homes and the scale of domestic carbon emissions. He argued that a well-designed stamp duty incentive – one that encourages older homeowners to downsize and requires the buyers of those homes to improve their energy ratings – could achieve both goals without major additional spending.
"If he encouraged people to move and got older people out of houses they don't want to be in, he would decarbonise the UK in a very short period of time," Murphy said.
Murphy noted the prime minister may have longer-term plans in development but warned that waiting risked leaving the market without support in the interim.
"He needs to reduce stamp duty now, even if he's got a bigger plan for property taxation and restructuring property taxation in the next 18 months," Murphy said. "He really does need to offer a bridge, because if in 18 months' time his master plan is totally rejected, he's got nowhere to go."
Murphy outlined a proposal inspired by France's approach to property transactions, under which stamp duty relief would be made available to older homeowners who choose to downsize, and also to the families purchasing those vacated properties, but with a condition attached.
"We say to them, we're going to give you reduced stamp duty, but we're going to give you a two-year window to make your house more energy efficient," Murphy said. "And if not, we're going to charge you additional stamp duty for you not doing it."
"He kills two birds with one stone. He creates the mobility he craves and he starts decarbonising the UK without having to do anything else and put any other incentives in."
The case for such an intervention is supported by data from the housing sector. Research published in July, drawing on data from the Radix Big Tent Housing Commission's Rightsizing Report, found that nearly half of over-65s cite stamp duty as a reason not to move home, despite 58% saying they want to downsize. The Commission estimates that enabling more later-life moves could release up to 870,000 family homes across the UK.
The political window
Murphy acknowledged that Burnham faces a narrow window to make an impact on housing policy, and that delay carries its own risks. The prime minister's early weeks in office have been dominated by a slate of announcements – from a VAT cut on energy bills to social care reform pledges – but property taxation has so far been left to chancellor John Healey to address at a future fiscal event.
The Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee has itself called for a formal consultation on stamp duty reform before the end of 2026, citing evidence that the current system is acting as a drag on housing mobility across all market segments. Yorkshire Building Society research found that the average homeowner now moves just once every 21 years, compared with every nine years in the 1980s, with stamp duty among the factors identified as contributing to the decline in transactions.
Murphy stopped short of prescribing what form any broader overhaul should take, but said the immediate priority is a targeted, practical measure that moves the market. The French model he described would require buyers to demonstrate a measurable uplift in their property's energy efficiency rating within 24 months of purchase, or face a clawback charge.
"He would pretty much decarbonise the UK in a very short period of time because we all know the majority of our carbon is produced by our houses, not by our cars."