Creating media support for a Stamp Duty holiday extension

Following a successful campaign to open up the housing market in the early part of the pandemic, the property industry was still under threat from the impending Stamp Duty holiday deadline. Whilst initially introduced as a stimulus to the market, the looming prospect of a cliff-edge deadline was causing significant capacity issues, leaving the industry and consumers alike at risk. WA was therefore appointed by the Home Moving Coalition to build on our work earlier in the year, and ensure a constant drumbeat of pressure on the Treasury, highlighting the impact a failure to extend the deadline would have on both consumers and the property market, as well as the economy as a whole. As part of a wider integrated strategic communications campaign, we completed extensive analysis of the media landscape, identifying key journalists and thought-leaders in the area, as well as establishing where there was already media support for a Stamp Duty holiday extension.

Having worked to coordinate messages across public affairs and media activity, we outreached to key journalists, offering background briefings on the issues facing the housing sector and the scale of the capacity issues facing the market. We supplemented this ongoing work with insightful data-led campaigns, evidencing the number of home-movers who would miss out, as well as the economic impact this would have on both the property and retail sector.  These data campaigns were supplemented with real life case studies and comments from Conservative MP, Ben Everitt to add political support for the campaign in the media.

We kicked off the campaign with a front page exclusive in the Telegraph’s weekend money section on the number of buyers expected to miss out on stamp duty holiday savings. This piece was then widely picked up by other national newspapers, and led to a comment piece by the Telegraph’s Head of Personal Finance directly calling on the Government to extend the Stamp Duty holiday. Since we started the media campaign in October, there have been over 1,000 articles discussing the possibility of a Stamp Duty holiday extension, with the Telegraph launching its ‘Stamp out the duty’ campaign in January. Comment and analysis from Home Moving Coalition members has regularly featured in articles by all major UK national publications including The Times, The Financial Times, The Mirror, The Sun, The Daily Express and The Daily Mail.