New research from agent Benham and Reeves highlights what it describes as the “disproportionate” amount of Stamp Duty paid by Londoners.

Buyers in London paid 39.2% of the total Stamp Duty receipts owed to the taxman in 2018 despite the capital making up just 11.3% of transactions, its research claims.

Analysis of Stamp Duty data by the agent found that despite the number of transactions in the capital dipping 33% between 2008 and 2018 to 125,000, the amount paid in Stamp Duty has jumped 86.4% in the past decade from £1.9bn to £3.6bn.

In contrast, the next largest Stamp Duty bill was in the south east of England at £1.9bn.

The agent highlighted that the south east also had the highest proportion of transactions in 2016 at 16.1% but buyers paid almost half that of their London counterparts.

The north west accounted for the second largest percentage of transactions last year (12.3%), but buyers in that region paid just the fifth largest proportion into the Stamp Duty pot at 4.9%.

Vidhur Mehra, finance director of Benham and Reeves, said: “Stamp Duty is a tax penalty disproportionately aimed at London.

“Despite representing approximately just 1.3% of England’s landmass, the capital is responsible for one-third of all property taxes by way of Stamp Duty.

“This is not just because London is home to the highest property prices in the nation, but also because at higher values the levy is now designed to penalise that sector harder in relative terms.

“Stamp Duty is not only an outdated, archaic practice but a tax on aspiration, choking the upwardly mobile who happen to live where many of the best jobs and transport infrastructure are provided.”