Labour won the general election on 4 July 2024 with a large parliamentary majority and a manifesto that said relatively little about Stamp Duty Land Tax. Within four months, Chancellor Rachel Reeves had delivered her first Autumn Budget and made the first identifiable Labour-era change to SDLT. By April 2025, two further significant changes had taken effect — one by inaction, one by the previous government's pre-existing timetable. Together they meaningfully shifted the cost of buying a home in England and Northern Ireland.
This article walks through every change in date order, explains what Reeves and Starmer have said publicly about future reform, and offers a sensible view on what the Autumn Budget 2026 might bring.
October 2024: the additional-dwelling surcharge rises to 5%
In her 30 October 2024 Autumn Budget, Rachel Reeves announced that the SDLT additional-dwelling surcharge — paid on top of standard rates by anyone buying a second residential property — would rise from 3% to 5% with effect from the following day, 31 October 2024. The 15% flat rate on residential properties bought by companies for more than £500,000 (where no ATED relief applies) also rose to 17%.
For a £400,000 buy-to-let purchase, this single change raised SDLT by £8,000 overnight. For landlords mid-purchase on 30 October 2024, the timing was brutal. The change applied to transactions where contracts were exchanged on or after Budget day, with the usual transitional provisions for purchases already exchanged but not yet completed.
Why Labour did this
Reeves framed the rise as a measure to "support first-time buyers and home movers" by reducing competition from second-home owners and small landlords. Critics argued it would simply push small landlords out of the rental market, reducing supply and raising rents. The Treasury projected the increase would raise around £400m a year.
April 2025: the threshold reverts — by inaction
The most consequential SDLT change of the Labour era did not require Labour to legislate at all. The £250,000 nil-rate threshold (and the £425,000 first-time buyer threshold) had been introduced as a temporary measure under Liz Truss in September 2022, with a legislated sunset date of 31 March 2025. Sunak's government chose not to renew them. Labour, on taking office, made no announcement extending them either.
On 1 April 2025, the standard nil-rate threshold reverted to £125,000 and the first-time buyer threshold reverted to £300,000 (with the relief cap falling from £625,000 to £500,000). This added up to £2,500 to a typical home mover's SDLT bill, and up to £6,250 to a first-time buyer's. Read our deep dive on the change in our April 2025 threshold guide.
What Starmer and Reeves have said
Neither Keir Starmer nor Rachel Reeves has framed stamp duty as a tax they want to reform structurally. Both have repeatedly emphasised that the answer to housing affordability is supply, not lower transaction taxes. In a January 2026 BBC interview, Reeves said reducing SDLT for second-home buyers would "reward people who already have the deepest pockets" — strongly suggesting she has no appetite to roll back the October 2024 surcharge rise.
Starmer's public comments have focused on planning reform and the 1.5 million new homes target by 2029. Stamp duty rarely features. This is consistent with the broader Labour position: SDLT is a useful revenue source (around £14bn a year), and any cut would be politically difficult to defend during fiscal tightening.
What to watch for in the Autumn Budget 2026
Speculation around Autumn Budget 2026 has centred on three possibilities: a modest uplift to the first-time buyer threshold (perhaps to £350,000) to soften the April 2025 reversion; a tweak to the non-resident surcharge; and a potential consultation on replacing residential SDLT for owner-occupiers with a property-value-based annual tax — a long-running policy idea championed by think tanks across the political spectrum.
None of these is confirmed, and Reeves has tended to keep her cards close. The most likely outcome is no major change to SDLT for owner-occupiers, continued political pressure on landlords and investors, and an absence of dramatic announcements either way. Buyers should budget on the basis of the current rules, not on hopes for future relief.
What this means for buyers today
If you bought a property between October 2024 and March 2025, you may have paid the higher 5% surcharge unnecessarily — particularly if your previous main residence sold afterwards. If you bought after April 2025, the lower thresholds applied. Either way, our refund estimator is a quick way to check.
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