The Government has announced that the temporary Stamp Duty £500,000 nil rate band exemption in England and Northern Ireland will be extended until 30th June 2021. This will be followed by a further tapering to a £250,000 nil rate band through to 30th September 2021.

Where this extension and/or further tapering means Stamp Duty will no longer be payable, we’re likely to see examples of new build developers restructuring the Stamp Duty financial incentive to a different type of financial incentive on the Disclosure Form.

Whilst any change in financial incentive would ordinarily need an update to the Disclosure Form, Nationwide and TMW will take the following temporary approach (including shared equity cases):

• If a Disclosure Form has already been provided for a valuation carried out before 4th March, we’ll accept a restructuring of the financial incentive from Stamp Duty to a different type of incentive (including cashbacks) of equal value. Please note a new Disclosure Form does not need to be submitted and we do not need to be informed.

• For cases where the valuation was carried out from 4th March 2021, the Disclosure Form must accurately reflect the incentives being offered and you should follow our current guidance as per 6.4.4 of the UK Finance Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook.