A St Albans estate agent has criticised yesterday’s Budget for failing to shift stamp duty thresholds for UK buyers.

Nick Doyle, senior property consultant at Cassidy & Tate, said: 'The Budget was a damp squib in terms of anticipated reductions in stamp duty.

'Increasing by 2 per cent to non-UK property buyers is quite elitist as overseas buyers tend to purchase in prime central London.'

Chancellor Rishi Sunak yesterday announced a 2 per cent stamp duty surcharge for non-UK residents buying property in England and Northern Ireland from April 2021.

This will be in addition to regular stamp duty rates, which remain unchanged at 0 per cent for properties costing less than £125,000 up to 12 per cent for £1.5 million-plus homes. First-time buyers pay no stamp duty on homes costing £300,000 or less.

Nick said that Cassidy & Tate had been holding off on launching several properties in the £1.5-£1.8 million price range until after the Budget was announced, adding that potential buyers had also been waiting to see if any cuts would be introduced.

A 'continued commitment' by the government to invest in infrastructure 'to unlock housing development and build more new homes to satisfy demand' was encouraging, he said.

He also welcomed the Bank of England's announcement yesterday that it was cutting interest rates by 0.5 per cent and putting borrowing 'back down to previous historic low levels'.