Chancellor Gordon Brown’s March Budget delivered a hoped-for rise in the stamp duty threshold, which was doubled to £120,000, exempting an estimated 300,000 buyers from the tax and costing the Treasury £250 million in 2005 – 06. <p></p><p>But while the housebuilding industry broadly welcomed the move, the new threshold does not accurately reflect market conditions and will only benefit those outside London and the south east buying low priced properties. According to the Halifax, the threshold would have needed to be raised to £157,000 to keep pace with house prices over the last 12 years, since just 15% of properties on the market are priced at less than £120,000. The HBF had lobbied government to raise the threshold to £170,000 in its pre-Budget submission. </p><p>“The doubling of the threshold stamp duty is very welcome,” said Wilson Bowden chief executive Ian Robertson. “But it now needs to be backed up with positive action on the Barker inquiry to enable us to develop far more products in that price range and benefit those buying at that end of the range.” </p><p>HBF chief executive Rob Ashmead said: “This change to stamp duty is not a panacea for the problems many people face in …