Industry pundits have questioned the likely effectiveness of the chancellor’s plans to temporarily exempt zero carbon housing from stamp duty, following his pre-Budget announcement last December. Linden’s associate technical director Peter Armfield claimed the chancellor’s pledge was a “token gesture,” since at today’s costs, building zero carbon homes would make many sites unviable. “On a £250,000 house, stamp duty of £2,500 is nothing compared to the cost of it all,” he said. A new report on The market for Ecohomes, published by property services specialist Savills, suggests that stamp duty exemptions will provide a negligible payback on all but top-end homes. Yolande Barnes, director of Savills Research, said: “If our assumption is correct – that the addition of the most carbon effective and cost effective measures to achieve carbon neutrality is around £9,000 for the average home – the stamp duty saving would confer sufficient value only on homes over £350,000 to make it economically worthwhile for developers on this ground alone.” She added: “To enable the housebuilding industry to achieve carbon neutrality at all levels of the market, many more measures, including grants, tax breaks and capital allowances will be needed.”