MORE than £12million has been raised in stamp duty from people buying homes in Basingstoke and Deane.

Nearly 85 per cent of that revenue, which goes to the Government, was made up of people paying the stamp duty rate of three per cent or more of the total purchase price.

The figures have been compiled by campaign group The TaxPayers’ Alliance, which wants the Government to cut stamp duty. The alliance says that the duty acts as a barrier to families owning their own home.

Stamp duty is paid when a person buys a house worth more than £125,000. The amount of stamp duty paid depends on the total value of the property.

The figures show that in 2012-13, there were 2,328 houses bought in the borough, raking in £12,275,419 in stamp duty revenue.

Of that, £10,291,417 was raised by house buyers paying the three per cent, or higher, rate of stamp duty.

Stamp duty is paid at three per cent when the property is worth between £250,001 and £500,000.

In Hart, which includes villages such as Hook and Odiham, £14,333,039 was raised from 1,287 transactions last year. About 95 per cent of that revenue was raised by house buyers paying the three per cent stamp duty rate or more.

In the Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council area, only three per cent of transactions came with a stamp duty rate of three per cent or higher, compared with 34 per cent in Basingstoke.

In Hart, 65 per cent of all houses bought last year attracted stamp duty of three per cent or higher.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance has launched a campaign called Stamp Out Stamp Duty, and has set up a website with a generic letter for people to send to their MPs to cut the tax.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Ministers have done nothing to ease the burden imposed by stamp duty, which is an unfair double tax that gets in the way of would-be first-time buyers and others thinking about moving.

“Instead, they have made things worse with new thresholds and new, higher rates.

“The Government needs to act on ministers’ rhetoric about getting people on to the property ladder, and cut this unfair tax.”