Autumn Budget: Reeves launches stamp duty holiday for new listings
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has launched a three-year stamp duty holiday for new debut companies on the London market in her latest attempt to attract listing candidates.
The Treasury’s new plans, announced as part of today’s Autumn Budget, will drop the 0.5 per cent rate paid by investors when purchasing shares in newly listed companies for the first three years following their initial public offering (IPO).
The move has been highly anticipated across the City amid hopes the government will step in to help the ailing London market.
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Dame Julia Hoggett, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, said: “We welcome the Chancellor’s decision to introduce a stamp duty holiday for IPOs for three years, which is a clear acknowledgment of the vital role equity markets play in driving investment, innovation, and job creation.
“It is also an important first step in removing the distorting effects of this duty which has historically disincentivised investment in UK companies, especially for retail investors.”
City hopes for further progress on ‘horrible’ Stamp Duty
Steven Fine, chief executive of Peel Hunt, previously told City PM: “I think it’s a horrible tax.
“Why have you got it on stocks and shares? It makes no sense whatsoever.”
Peel Hunt has lobbied for a complete abolition of the levy, but Fine had said the exemption provides an “indicator” of direction.
FTSE 250 investment platform IG launched a “Save our Stock market” initiative – aptly dubbed the SOS campaign – earlier this year, serving as an “urgent rallying cry to policymakers” to reverse the market’s decline.
Calls to reform stamp duty took centre stage with warnings it was driving firms away from the London market.
The London Stock Exchange suffered its biggest exodus since the financial crisis last year after 88 firms ditched their primary listing or delisted, including the likes of Paddy Power owner Flutter and tech darling Darktrace.
This continued in 2025, with money transfer firm Wise transferring its primary listing to the US earlier this year as it sought a deeper pool of capital.
But there have been signs of life in the final months of the year.
The floats of tinned tuna giant Princes and specialist lender Shawbrook brought a much-needed boost to the market, with the latter notching a valuation just shy of £2bn and rising six per cent in its debut.
The chief executive of investment bank Cavendish – a key adviser to AIM-listed firms – told City PM in October that the government needed to be “very careful” in the Budget to avoid harming the IPO pipeline’s resurgence.
“The main driver [of the IPO market] is the economy, so if the government brings in policies which harm the economy, that is going to harm the IPO market,” he said.