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"... stamp duty receipts from homes costing more than £1m went up by 15% across the year, the Treasury said."

Evidently not enough to replace the £0.66 billion in lost SDLT revenue last year. Not that doing away with the slab system was a bad idea, but if the chancellor was aiming for fiscal neutrality he was a way off.

I agree that the surcharge is to recoup the loss from switching to a progressive system. It won't affect the tax bills for first-time buyers and I doubt it will materially affect prices.