Budget Resolution No. 35: Stamp duty land tax (additional dwellings: purchases before 1 April 2025)

Parliament voted on 6 November 2024 to approve Budget Resolution No. 35, which authorised an increase in stamp duty land tax on purchases of additional dwellings, such as second homes and buy-to-let properties, completed before 1 April 2025. The resolution passed by 378 votes to 116. Budget Resolutions are the formal mechanism by which Parliament gives legal authority to tax changes announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Budget, allowing them to take effect immediately rather than waiting for a Finance Bill to complete its full passage. The resolution implements a higher surcharge on stamp duty for additional property purchases, targeting buyers who already own at least one home. In practical terms, it raises the cost of acquiring a second home or a rental investment property, with the government's aim being to reduce competition from investors and second-home buyers in a housing market where owner-occupier demand, particularly from first-time buyers, already outstrips supply. The measure affects anyone who completed such a purchase in the period covered by the resolution. The vote divided cleanly along party lines. All 329 Labour MPs and 35 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted supported the resolution, alongside four Greens and five Liberal Democrats, the latter representing only a small share of that party's total MPs, with 67 having no vote recorded. All 99 voting Conservatives opposed it, joined by five Reform UK MPs and three Democratic Unionists. No Conservative voted in favour. The measure sits within a broader set of housing and taxation policies from the Autumn Budget, and the related divisions listed in the same period show a similar pattern of government victories on housing-related votes.