The Government has abolished the stamp duty on share purchases in newly listed companies. The move is aimed at making London a more attractive destination for investment after one of the quietest years on record for new listings.
The change scraps a tax that investors paid when purchasing shares in a company going public. The chancellor hopes that removing the levy will increase demand for new listings and encourage more firms to choose London.
The announcement comes as the London Stock Exchange faces a delicate moment. Just 18 companies floated in 2024 across both the main market and AIM, according to Ernst and Young’s (EY) IPO Eye report, the lowest total since at least 2010 when the firm began tracking the data. While proceeds reached £3.4bn, driven mainly by a handful of large listings, the overall pipeline remained thin and confidence fragile.
Reeves said removing stamp duty will help reverse this trend by making IPO participation cheaper for investors and strengthening London’s competitiveness against New York, Amsterdam and other rival exchanges. The change applies only to newly listed companies, effectively creating a tax incentive specific to IPOs rather than to secondary-market trading.
In 2024 alone, 88 London-listed firms delisted or moved their primary listing elsewhere, according to EY, the largest exodus since the global financial crisis.
