§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer by how much the existing £15,000 starting figure for the payment of stamp duty on house purchase would need to be increased to take account of inflation since it came into operation on 1 May 1974.
Mr. DenzilDavies: The £15,000 threshold would need to be increased by £13,900 to allow for the movement in the 196W General Index of Retail Prices between May 1974 and January 1979. If the movement in average house prices is adopted as the measure of inflation, the increase would be some £9,000.