Comment from Mike Fairman, CEO of Checkatrade, on the measures announced in the Spring Budget 2021
3 March 2021:
“Investment in the housing market will always drive a positive impact for the wider home improvement industry, and Checkatrade welcomes the new mortgage guarantee scheme and the extension to the temporary cut in Stamp Duty Land Tax which have been announced in today’s budget.
The cut to Stamp Duty has had an immediate and profoundly positive impact for our trades – searches across our site increased 5% between June and July 2020* as consumers used tradespeople’s services to prepare their homes for sale. Now, with many sales completing, we’re also seeing consumers start to invest in their new homes, and key categories like removals and storage are seeing increases in demand of over 130% year-on-year*.
Clearly, the impact for our tradespeople from this initiative has been profound and long tailed. Safeguarding home sales reliant on the Stamp Duty cut protects jobs for our tradespeople, who rely on the buoyancy of the housing market in order to sustain their own income.
Following today’s announcement, we’re expecting the exponential demand we’re already seeing to continue for a considerable period to come”
* Searches on Checkatrade for all categories increased by 5% – June 2020 vs. July 2020
** Increase of 130% in removals and storage category – February 2020 vs. February 2021