The Government now calculates that it will make £800 million less from stamp duty this year than it previously forecast, because of a slump in number of people buying and selling property.
The admission - in footnotes to this month’s Budget - is the most official recognition yet that the credit crunch is deterring people from moving home.
The Conservatives claimed that stamp duty itself was making homes unaffordable for thousand of first-time buyers.
Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, said: “When Labour came to power there was only one low rate of stamp duty, but over the years Gordon Brown has tapped into the house-buying public as a source of income and he now rakes in ten times as much through this tax.
“Labour have created a disincentive to move because stamp duty is cash that would have usually gone towards a deposit. Add in new red tape such as the …
