Conservative leader David Cameron has suggested that his party would look to abolish stamp duty on houses worth up to £250,000 for first-time buyers only.

Speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Cameron said that house prices are proving to be a barrier for many first-time buyers, with the country currently experiencing its lowest rate of new buyers for 27 years.

He said: “ Today people are looking at their salary cheque, then looking at house prices and theyre thinking that they can’t get on that ladder.”

Removing the tax on properties below £250,000 would ease the financial burden for 200,000 people, he added. David Hass, spokesman for the Conservative Party, said: “The further stamp duty thresholds (3% currently at £250,000 and 4% at £500,000 respectively) have not been set out yet but will be at a later date.”

The partys shadow chancellor George Osborne also announced that the Conservatives aimed to reduce the inheritance tax burden for families by raising the threshold from £300,000 to £1m.
In addition, the controversial Home Information Packs (HIPs) which were intended to speed up house sales, plan to be scrapped if the Conservatives come into power. The party classes them as clumsy and ineffective, and not streamlining the house-buying process as the Government had hoped.