Is stamp duty being scrapped in 2026?

No. No change to Stamp Duty Land Tax has been made or confirmed for 2026, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham has explicitly ruled out changing it at the Autumn Budget on 26 November 2026, telling reporters in Portsmouth that it "won't be happening" (Bloomberg, 27 July 2026). Several proposals are circulating, a Conservative pledge to abolish the tax up to £300,000, a 0.48% annual property charge linked to the Fairer Share campaign, and a 0.5% proportional tax from the IPPR, but none of them is government policy or draft legislation. The rules that apply to your purchase today are the ones set on 1 April 2025: first-time buyers pay 0% up to £300,000 and 5% up to £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland, with standard rates applying in full above that. Budget on those figures, not on a rumour, and check GOV.UK directly if you want to confirm nothing has changed since this was published.

What did Andy Burnham say about scrapping stamp duty?

Andy Burnham told reporters during a visit to Portsmouth in late July 2026 that changing Stamp Duty in this year's Budget "won't be happening" (Bloomberg, 27 July 2026; Mortgage Solutions, 28 July 2026). Downing Street separately dismissed reports that the government was actively considering replacing Stamp Duty and council tax with a single annual property charge as "not true" and "pure speculation". Separately, a cross-party Housing Committee did recommend on 9 June 2026 that the government consult on alternatives to Stamp Duty before the end of 2026, paired with council tax reform, but the government's formal response to that recommendation is still awaited. So the honest summary is that the PM has ruled out change this year, while a slower, more formal review process has been recommended but not yet begun. Treat anything beyond that as speculation until GOV.UK or HM Treasury confirms otherwise.

Should I delay buying a house because a stamp duty change might be coming?

No. Speculation about Stamp Duty reform has already cooled the market once this year without a single rule changing, and there's no reason to expect a second wait to end any differently. Delaying a £320,000 purchase by a year while house prices grow at the current national rate of 1.8% (Nationwide HPI, July 2026) adds roughly £5,760 to the price of the same home, which dwarfs the £1,000 first-time buyer Stamp Duty bill you'd be trying to avoid paying today. Most people who run these numbers end up making the offer now under the rules that actually exist, rather than waiting on a policy that the Prime Minister has already ruled out for this Budget. If reform ever arrives, treat it as a bonus, not a reason to sit on your hands.

The £4.5bn stamp duty cut that isn't happening at £300k

Q: Would scrapping stamp duty up to £300,000 actually help first-time buyers?

Less than you'd think. First-time buyers in England and Northern Ireland already pay 0% Stamp Duty up to £300,000 under the relief that has applied since 1 April 2025, so the Conservative Party's pledge to abolish the tax up to that same threshold would mainly benefit home movers, who get no such relief and currently pay standard rates from £125,000. The pledge would cost an estimated £4.5bn a year on a static basis, rising to £10bn a year once behavioural effects are included (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Government estimates, 2026), and no replacement revenue has been announced. Because roughly 60% of current Stamp Duty revenue comes from properties above £300,000 in southern England, a genuine abolition at that threshold would deliver its biggest cash benefit to buyers in the Midlands and North rather than London or the South East. If you're a first-time buyer already under £300,000, don't expect this specific proposal, even if it were adopted, to change your bill.

You've told yourself you'll wait until the Budget before making an offer. Every headline this summer has hinted that Stamp Duty is on the chopping block somewhere between abolished, halved, or swapped for something else entirely, and pausing your search until the picture clears feels like the sensible move. It isn't. The Prime Minister has already ruled out touching Stamp Duty at the Autumn Budget on 26 November 2026 (Mortgage Solutions, 28 July 2026), which means the £300,000 first-time buyer threshold you're planning around right now is the one you should actually budget for.

Andy Burnham told reporters visiting Portsmouth in late July that changing Stamp Duty in this Budget "won't be happening" (Bloomberg, 27 July 2026), and Downing Street separately dismissed reports of a wider council tax and Stamp Duty merger as "not true" and "pure speculation" the same week. None of the proposals doing the rounds, a Conservative pledge to scrap the tax up to £300,000, a 0.48% annual property charge, or a proportional tax from a leading think tank, has been adopted as government policy. If you're holding off on an offer because you think a cut is coming, you're waiting for something that isn't scheduled to happen.

What the rumours actually say

The Conservative Party pledged at its October 2025 conference to abolish Stamp Duty on primary residences up to £300,000 for UK residents, excluding second homes and company purchases. The Institute for Fiscal Studies puts the static cost at £4.5bn a year, rising to as much as £10bn a year once the Institute for Government's behavioural estimate (more transactions, higher prices) is factored in, and no replacement revenue has been announced (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Government, 2026).

Separately, the Fairer Share campaign, which Andy Burnham backed before taking office, proposes scrapping both council tax and Stamp Duty entirely and replacing them with a single annual charge of 0.48% of a property's value, rising to 0.96% for second homes and overseas-owned property. Centre for London modelled the flat version and found it would cost £2,880 a year on a £600,000 London home, £812 more than the equivalent council tax band (Centre for London, July 2026). A third proposal from the IPPR would replace Stamp Duty with a 0.5% annual proportional property tax instead of a one-off charge (IPPR, 2026). The Treasury is also reported to be examining a simpler option: a flat rate only on the value above £500,000, which would exempt roughly 80% of transactions (Guardian and Financial Times reporting, 2026).

So none of this is law, and if you're a first-time buyer already under the current £300,000 threshold, several of these proposals wouldn't even change what you owe.

What Downing Street has actually said

Set the speculation against what's actually been confirmed. Burnham's Portsmouth comments were about as direct as a denial gets, and Downing Street has twice now dismissed reports of a bigger property tax overhaul as untrue. Separately, a cross-party Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee did recommend on 9 June 2026 that the government consult on alternatives to Stamp Duty before the end of 2026, paired with council tax reform, a development we tracked in more depth in this month's legal and tax changes roundup, but that recommendation still hasn't produced a formal government response. Even the mildest, slowest version of reform, a consultation, hasn't formally started.

Compare that to what you can actually rely on: the current first-time buyer bands (0% to £300,000, 5% to £500,000, no relief at all above that) have applied unchanged since 1 April 2025 (GOV.UK), a fact covered in more detail in our breakdown of the outdated £425,000 stamp duty figure still doing the rounds online.

So if you're waiting for a formal government position before you commit to a purchase, that position doesn't exist yet, and there's no sign it will exist before your current search is likely to be over.

The real cost of waiting for a cut that never comes

This has already happened once this year. Reflecting on the run-up to the November 2025 Budget, Panmure Liberum's chief economist Simon French warned that sustained speculation risks "a freeze on transactions... as speculation over incidence and transitional protections discourage activity", while Propertymark's head of policy Timothy Douglas said plainly that "months of speculation is not helpful and risks cooling the housing market" (both quoted in stamp duty reform coverage, July 2026). That Budget left Stamp Duty completely untouched in the end. Speculation alone did the damage, and the current round of rumours is running the same playbook.

Run the numbers on delaying a purchase yourself. Say you're targeting a £320,000 first-time buyer home, well within reach in much of Manchester and the wider North West. Today's Stamp Duty bill is £1,000: 0% on the first £300,000, 5% on the remaining £20,000. Wait a year hoping for a cut that doesn't arrive, and if the house grows in line with Nationwide's current national annual rate of 1.8% (Nationwide HPI, July 2026), the same home now costs £325,760. Your Stamp Duty bill barely moves, up to roughly £1,288, but you've paid an extra £5,760 for the house itself. That's nearly £6,050 lost to waiting, against a tax saving that was never confirmed in the first place.

The maths, in one place:

£320,000 first-time buyer purchase · Stamp Duty today: £1,000 · Same home a year later at +1.8% price growth (Nationwide HPI, July 2026): £325,760 · Stamp Duty on the higher price: roughly £1,288 · Extra price paid by waiting: £5,760 · Total cost of a year's delay: roughly £6,048, against a Stamp Duty saving that isn't confirmed and may never arrive.

So the maths only works in your favour if the tax genuinely disappears and the price of the home doesn't move while you wait, and neither of those things is currently true.

Would any of these proposals actually help a first-time buyer?

Even setting aside timing, it's worth asking whether the headline proposal would help you specifically. First-time buyers in England and Northern Ireland already pay 0% Stamp Duty up to £300,000, so the Conservative pledge to abolish the tax at that same threshold would mainly benefit home movers, who get no first-time buyer relief and currently pay standard rates from £125,000. If that specific pledge became law tomorrow, it would change very little for a first-time buyer already under £300,000.

The annual-charge proposals cut the other way. Take that same £320,000 example: a 0.48% annual charge works out at £1,536 a year, every year, against a one-off £1,000 under today's rules. Stay in the home for more than a year, which almost everyone does, and you'd pay more under an annual model than you currently do, even though it's being pitched as reform. There's also a genuine regional upside buried in the abolition proposal: because roughly 60% of current Stamp Duty revenue comes from properties priced above £300,000 in southern England (Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2026), a real abolition at that threshold would deliver its biggest benefit to buyers in the Midlands and North, echoing the same regional stamp duty divide already visible in who pays the tax today.

So even in the best-case scenario where one of these proposals became law, whether it actually helps you depends entirely on which one, and on how long you plan to stay in the home.

What this means for you

Budget on today's rules, because that's what applies for at least this Budget cycle, based on the Prime Minister's own words: 0% Stamp Duty up to £300,000, 5% up to £500,000, and standard rates in full above that if you're a first-time buyer in England or Northern Ireland (Scotland and Wales run their own separate systems, LBTT and LTT, and neither is part of this debate). Frankly, if you're sitting on a mortgage offer or an agreed purchase, the maths above shows speculation has already cost buyers money once this year without a single rule changing, and there's no reason to think a second round ends differently. Most people who run these numbers end up making the offer now under the rules that actually exist, rather than waiting on a policy the PM has already ruled out. Check your own purchase price against the current bands with our Stamp Duty calculator, and if reform ever does arrive, treat it as a bonus you didn't plan for, not a reason to have delayed.