If you want proof that politicians don’t always know what’s best for the UK housing market, then you should be able to furnish yourself with numerous examples over the past few decades.
We’ve had endless interventions - Help to Buy, First Homes, stamp duty cuts, increases and holidays, schemes for key workers, and that’s just a drop in the ocean. Yet here we are, still grappling with a chronic supply shortage, broken planning rules, leasehold reform stuck in limbo, and some using conveyancing processes that wouldn’t look out of place in the 1990s.
Politicians think in terms of soundbites and election cycles. They want quick wins that grab headlines – ‘help for first-time buyers’, ‘support for families’, ‘getting Britain building again’, and the latest one, ‘an economy that works for working people’. Although it would appear to have a very weird definition of what ‘working people’ actually are.
But, as all stakeholders know, the housing market isn’t a five-year project, it requires a 25-30 year strategy which we have been sorely missing. Every time a Chancellor tinkers with stamp duty thresholds or reliefs, we see the same cycle: artificial cliff-edges, distortion of demand, and inertia either side of the deadline.
Take the latest leaks about abolishing stamp duty altogether and replacing it with a new property tax. If that really is the plan, then let’s see it. But here’s the problem: by letting it dribble into the public domain in August and not confirming until the end of November Budget, all the Government has done this time is press pause on the market for three months.
Recent UK Finance figures show activity was picking up again in June – so why inject new uncertainty? If the Government doesn’t follow through with something radical now, all it will have achieved is three months of inertia at a time when momentum was building.
And if demand does dampen because buyers are hedging their bets on a stamp duty announcement, then it becomes even more important for advisers to focus on income-generating opportunities in the meantime. That won’t just be the mortgage, but all the ancillary services that clients still need, whether they are buying, selling, or remortgaging.
Conveyancing, protection, general insurance - there is advice to be given across the board. In lieu of a conveyancing process that works in weeks rather than months, advisers can still take control by ensuring their clients are placed with conveyancers that specialise and can work efficiently. That not only helps keep the case moving but also adds real value to the client relationship.
And while we’re on priorities - how is it possible that, for twenty years, successive Governments have not grasped the nettle of conveyancing and property sale/purchase process reform? Every transaction in the UK depends on the efficiency of this process. It’s the beating heart of the market.
Yet, for many consumers it’s still frustratingly slow, paper-heavy, and beset with duplication. If you asked most brokers, conveyancers, or clients what’s really needed, it wouldn’t be another stamp duty holiday. It would be an injection of greater certainty and further investment in making the process faster, clearer, and less stressful.
Technology and AI can help deliver this. Imagine a conveyancing process where standard property information is digitised and portable, where ID verification is instant, where risk checks are automated, and where communication between all parties is streamlined. We’re already seeing innovation from law firms and platforms, but more could be done.
Politicians will claim they are acting in the best interests of the market, but let’s be honest: the best ideas are not coming out of Westminster. They are coming from the industry itself - advisers, brokers, lenders, conveyancers; those who are actually listening to clients and building solutions around their needs. Our focus, for instance, is on transparency, efficiency, and trust. These are the things that make a difference to real people buying and selling homes.
So let’s bust the myth. Politicians may believe they know best, but history suggests otherwise. Until we see long-term reform, genuine investment in technology, and a recognition that tinkering with stamp duty isn’t the same as fixing the fundamentals, advisers and their clients will keep paying the price for political short-termism.
The November Budget will be another test - if all this summer’s leaks amount to nothing more than another headline-grabbing tweak, then what exactly was the point?
