Stamp duty stays as it is, for now.

What did the Prime Minister actually rule out?

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ruled out replacing stamp duty with a new property-value tax in the Autumn Budget, ending months of speculation that had been unsettling movers across Huntingdonshire. Speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg on 26 July 2026, Burnham was asked directly whether he could reassure homebuyers he would not change or scrap stamp duty in the next Budget.

The speculation had built for weeks. Burnham had floated options for overhauling council tax, including a proportional property tax and a land value tax that some commentators assumed could eventually fold stamp duty in too, plus a lower threshold for the mansion tax surcharge introduced at last year's Budget. As of 3 August 2026, none of that touches stamp duty itself. The bands already in force are the ones buyers and sellers should plan around.

Why does this matter for the patch?

Zoopla's executive director, Richard Donnell, has been tracking the drag that tax uncertainty puts on the market: he describes stamp duty as a “meaningful friction” that stops some home movers moving at all, since six in ten purchases in England are made by existing homeowners rather than first-time buyers. Layer a rumoured tax overhaul on top of that existing friction, and it is not hard to see why some sellers in Huntingdon, Brampton and Godmanchester had been waiting to see what the Autumn Budget held before listing.

The effect was sharpest at the top of the market, where a proportional property tax would have hit hardest. Huntingdonshire's typical first-time buyer purchase sits well under the thresholds that trigger a stamp duty bill at all, but the patch does have a genuine higher-value tier, in villages such as Buckden and Kimbolton, where sellers of larger family homes had the most riding on which way the reform speculation landed. For them, this is the closest thing to certainty the market has had since the rumours started.

What are today's stamp duty rules, in plain terms?

Nothing has changed, which is the point. First-time buyers pay nothing on the first £300,000 of a purchase, with relief tapering out above £500,000. Home movers get a standard nil-rate band of £125,000, well below the first-time buyer relief, so most people trading up in the patch still pay something. The full bands are set out on GOV.UK's stamp duty rates page, and as of 3 August 2026 they remain the confirmed rules for this Budget cycle, not a placeholder waiting to be replaced.

What should buyers and sellers do now?

If a fear of a bigger tax reform was the reason you were holding off, that reason has gone for this Budget. Run your own numbers through our stamp duty calculator before you make an offer, since the answer depends entirely on your purchase price and whether you are buying for the first time. If you are weighing whether to list, a free valuation gives you a current price to plan the move around, and our Brampton estate agents team can talk you through what stamp duty actually adds to your specific move, budget confirmation included.