The fact that the parliamentary debate last week kicked the can down the road until the Budget on 3 March is not helpful for our industry and the unprecedented pressure remains, unfortunately.

As a minimum, we would like to see some sort of tapering rather than a blunt cut-off date for completion.

Although the stamp duty holiday was put in place with good intentions for the wider economy, with hindsight it would have been better to put in a tapered run-up to an end date, as opposed to a cliff edge.

That way conveyancers, lenders, local authorities, surveyors, removal companies could manage customer expectations and better manager their own resources and capacity, which is paramount as the current level of demand has never been experienced before.

If an offer for a home has been accepted and the mortgage is in place, buyers and sellers must wait for the conveyancing process to be carried out.

Current demand for conveyancing is at unprecedented levels but the real challenge is that the process relies on many parties; banks, local authorities, search agencies, surveyors etc, all of whom are swamped with requests, which is causing substantial delays in the process.

Their workload is exacerbated by Covid restrictions on office working, staff shortages and the need to self-isolate – all of which are no fault of their own.

Even if a tapering of the stamp duty deadline was limited to buyers who have exchanged contracts, it would be better than nothing.

It usually takes another week or two to complete a property transaction after exchange of contract, so the stamp duty holiday should be extended under these circumstances.

Elliot Colburn MP, who introduced the parliamentary debate, noted that MPs from all three political parties agreed in ‘a rare moment of unity’ that stamp duty needs to be reviewed in the future.

It is obvious listening to those MPs who contributed to the debate that the most sensible solution regarding the stamp duty holiday is to wind it down by tapering it for those buyers who are waiting for the conveyancing to be completed.