The International Monetary Fund has called on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to scrap stamp duty as it warned the tax was clogging up the housing market and stopping people switching jobs.
The Fund said the Chancellor should consider a move away from “transaction taxes which constrain housing and labour mobility.”
Instead of a property sales tax the Fund suggested adopting a new levy based on the value of a property.
The call came after the Washington-based thinktank said it no longer predicted a recession in the UK and increased its forecasts for economic growth.
The IMF now expects UK GDP to grow 0.4% per cent in 2023, reflecting stronger wage growth, more supportive fiscal policy and the easing of global energy prices and supply chain blockages.
The fund expects growth of 1% in 2024 and to average 2% in 2025 and 2026.
In January, the IMF predicted in January that the UK economy would shrink by 0.5% between the final quarter of 2022 and the last quarter of this year.