George Kerevan - A stamp duty holiday won't be much of a break

SUDDENLY, and from all sides, there are rumours that the Westminster government is considering a moratorium on house-purchase stamp duty, as a way of breathing life into the property market and throwing a lifeline to first-time buyers.

True, Alistair Darling was coy about confirming the plan on the Today programme, but that was par for the course. Such widespread speculation only occurs when the Treasury itself is doing the leaking. Mr Darling is flying a policy kite to see if it p...