This week’s parliamentary “e-debate” on stamp duty was a product of the growing pressure chancellor Rishi Sunak is under to extend the temporary stamp duty holiday he introduced last July, which has been saving buyers anything up to £15,000 on cost of moving house.

The debate, forced after more than 140,000 signed a petition calling for the temporary stamp duty relief to be extended, comes amid increasing concern over a backlog of property transactions which could see many prospective buyers miss out on tax savings they were expecting, potentially causing thousands of sales to collapse.

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