Hopes, if not expectations, were running high last week when the chancellor stood up at the despatch box in the House of Commons, Much of the property industry had been lobbying hard for Philip Hammond to reverse at least some of the changes to stamp duty land tax (SDLT) made by his predecessor George Osborne. It wasn't to be. In hindsight, perhaps it was too soon to have expected a U-turn, even from a government so purposefully burning its bridges with the previous administration. While Hammond had shown no concern about ripping up some of Osborne's most prized policy initiatives, rowing back on SDLT would have been difficult to square with a narrative constructed around helping those "just about managing".
展开▼
