“Our housing market is not working as it should, said Badenoch in a surprise part of her speech at the party’s conference in Manchester. 

“The next Conservative government will abolish stamp duty.” 

“Stamp duty is a bad tax. We must free up our housing market, because a society where no one can afford to buy or move is a society where social mobility is dead.” 

Stamp duty is a contentious tax, widely viewed by the industry and economists on the right and left as one that restricts house moves and housebuilding. 

Currently, home buyers in England and Northern Ireland are required to pay stamp duty on properties valued over £125,000, ranging from 2% of the value of the home to 12%, for houses valued at more than £1.5m. For first-time buyers, the threshold is £300,000.     

The levy raised £11.6bn last year, according to government data. 

But the right-leaning Institute of Economic Affairs executive director Tom Clougherty said: “Abolishing stamp duty is the single best reform any government could make to Britain’s tax system. 

“As things stand, this outdated and uneconomic levy is wreaking havoc on our already troubled housing market – by deterring sales and depressing house-building. 

“Indeed, research suggests that the wider social and economic harms are equivalent to three-quarters of the revenue raised – and that’s on top of the loss to the people actually paying the tax.” 

Knight Frank head of UK residential research Tom Bill pointed out: “Stamp duty is the one lever politicians can pull that is guaranteed to have an immediate impact on the housing market. 

“If bond markets feel confident that it has been fully costed and mortgage costs don’t spike, buyers and sellers would warmly welcome the move. 

“It would inevitably have positive repercussions for the wider economy and increase social mobility. 

“The only downside is that if the Tories are leading in the polls ahead of the next general election, the housing market could grind to a halt.”

Last year, the left-leaning Institute for Fiscal Studies called stamp duty “among our worst and most damaging taxes”. 

The body added that stamp duties applied to landlords are simply passed on in “higher rents”.