Stamp duty holiday confirmed

Get straight to the good stuff every day with the Multiply Minute; a lightning-quick round-up of the money news and how it affects you.

Stamp duty holiday

Home buyers won't have to pay stamp duty on the first £500,000 of their new home. It’s effective immediately, until next March. The change means many people won’t pay the tax at all, and the average buyer will save around £4,500.

Adviser comment "First-time buyers were already exempt from stamp duty on the first £300,000, but this new holiday applies to everyone, plus it has a higher cap. It’s great news for anyone purchasing a property and the government is hoping it will give the property market a boost. We've updated calculators in our app and website to reflect these changes."

What else was in the mini-Budget?

Chancellor Rishi Sunak made his summer statement yesterday, laying out £30 billion of support to help the economy recover from the impacts of coronavirus. Here are the highlights.

Furlough bonus: Employers will be rewarded for keeping staff on, with a £1,000 one-off bonus for every furloughed worker that’s still in their job in January 2021.

Meal deal: If you go out to a restaurant, pub, or cafe you’ll get 50% off your dinner (or the first £10 of it at least) on Monday to Wednesday throughout August. The discount doesn’t cover booze, though.

Kickstart jobs: There’s a whole raft of new schemes to help young people find work, from a £2 billion fund to create new work placements for people on universal credit, to extra coaches at Jobcentre Plus.

Super spendy Saturday

Pubs, restaurants, and hairdressers opened their doors last weekend, and we’ve got the bank statements to prove it. Revolut has revealed its users spent 50% more on “Super Saturday” than on an average lockdown day.