Capital gains tax is to be reduced in a bid to increase Government revenues, the Chancellor has announced in his Spring Budget.

The rate paid by higher or additional taxpayers on residential property is to drop from the current 28 percent to 24 percent.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “We can now help families not just with temporary cost of living support but with permanent cuts in taxation.”

Economist and professor at the University of Warwick, Arun Advani, was critical of the move and said he “would like to see the workings on this one”.

He said: “Sure we might have more transactions, but if someone always owns the asset, not sure how it increases revenue.