By Chris Smith - 16th June 2003
Planned reforms of stamp duty should not be rushed by the government, peers have warned.
A powerful House of Lords committee, which included four former Treasury ministers, has said that a key change to Gordon Brown's Budget should not be brought forward in order to meet an "arbitrary date".
The chancellor announced in April's Budget that one of Britain's oldest taxes would be modernised in a bid to boost deprived areas and encourage regeneration.
People buying properties to start businesses or taking on new leases would be subject to lower levels of stamp duty.
But members of the Lords economic affairs sub-committee on the Finance Bill highlighted several key problems and warned some of the main changes have already passed through the Commons without being scrutinised.
Other problems include the failure to deal with turnover-based lease rentals and inconsistencies over disadvantaged areas relief.
The peers, in their first-ever review of the Finance Bill, also called for enhanced safeguards for innocent traders caught up in supply chain scams.
"We support the government's attempts to crack down on supply chain frauds but a better balance has to be struck between that effort and protecting the rights of legitimate traders," said Lord Peston, who chaired the inquiry.
"The new stamp duty land tax has important consequences for the commercial property market and developers.
"We have found widespread concern about this in professional and trade circles. It's better to get it right than to stick to an arbitrary target date, so we recommend a review in the autumn to make sure everything is properly on track."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd