Rather than succumb to the doom and gloom of other industries, building companies should make the most of the current climate. With fewer and fewer of us brave enough to move house at the moment, we’re spending more on doing up our current home - so the scope for business is greater than ever!

Derek Vaughan, London,

Why all the complaints? Soon houses will be so cheap you'll be able to buy almost at cost price. Save prudently and you might not need a mortgage at all. Check your local auctioneers.

Paul, Coventry,

Every builder in the country is now stopping building not just Persimmon. There isn't any demand for housing as the banks have cut off the mortgage supply system and are being utterly selfish. Scrapping stamp duty would help but so would scrapping university tuition fees and student debt!

Jonathan, London, England

The government should get rid of all the non-jobs they have created & form a government house building department. Employ the professional trades men the big builders are going to lay off, they could help train new apprentices on the job, building decent houses for rent or sale at affordable prices I bet that competition would get the big builders building houses at affordable prices

Dave , Birmingham ,

Yes to reform of stamp duty but tax landbanks as well - if Persimmon won't build on land where they already have planning permission they should pay council tax on each plot or sell to someone who will build (such as self-builders) - they can't simply hoard land since that imposes huge social costs.

Huw Sayer, Norwich, England

The Government need to act quickly in this matter to kick start the housing market. They need to either suspend the ridiculous Stamp duty sysyem or raise the starting point to a more realistic figure of say 200K. More affordable homes homes are deperately needed at the lower end of the market.

Keith Bailey, Trowbridge, England

It is the Banks and Building Societies that are shooting themselves in the foot. By insisting that buyers have a large deposit this will cut back on number of available buyers and so prices will continue to fall, creating the one thing that they are trying to avoid.
Buy shared ownership - no tax!

Matthew Elsegood, Bedford, England

There are still massive building projects underway in North Milton Keynes; I suspect they will be for shared ownnership and key workers. This is the obvious way to go now for major building firms. Puchasing 100% of a property is out of the question for nearly all first time buyers.

john, milton keynes,

For good or bad housing has become a "market". If it is necessary to "free up" the market then prices have to be at a level at which people wish to buy. Due to irresponsible lending/borrowing ,prices are apparently too high, so they have to fall. The invisable hand at work, what a fine system!

Adam Smith, Edinburgh, Scotland

The government needs to stop HIP packs. People moan about the 10p tax, This is whats strangling the market and losing people jobs.

Market stalled 31/08/08- Any coincidence?

Why aren' t the media interested?

Rich, Hereford,

Where this tax is wrong is that it was never implemented to catch first time buyers. However with house prices increasing (I know not any more!) at a vastly inflated rate and much higher than wages, Stamp Duty now catches most first timers. The limit should be £250,000.00 minimum

Jo Millar, Clacton on Sea, e

Why should the government scrap stamp duty on new purchases? What about those already owning a house. Surely they would be unfairly penalised as a result.

Robin, Bournemouth,

This rapacious company is sitting on more then FIVE years of APPROVED plots of land.It is one of the most profitable companies in the uk making a NET profit margin of well over 20% of sales.
It is a disgrace that companies like this can just wait and do nothing waiting for the market to improve.

Rajeev, northwood,

The builders are just like the bankers.

During an unprecedented boom they make massive profits, award themselves record bonuses and defend it all by advocating free market capitalism.

And when it pops - they whinge to the government to cut taxes to help bail them out.

And knowing Brown, he will!

Mart, London, UK

I am about to exchange on a persimmon house!! This has me concerned that if I go ahead and the site is not completed, I may suffer from a massive drop in my house's price which scares me............any advise?

Wes, Staffs

Wes, Newcastle, UK

The volume house builders have substantial resources to see this through having made serious money over the last 10 years clearing 25% plus profit on some schemes. We are in a correction but their vast landbanks bought at the right price in the past will still produce a profit in due course.

John Barton, Bath, UK

New Homes Builders are struggling because they have been seduced by the Government into building high density, three and four storey properties and 'apartments' that are not only losing popularity with home buyers but 20% more expensive than similar second hand properties.

Dave James, Leeds, Yorkshire

Chickens come home to roost....having purchased 2 new builds in the last 7 years and had sloppy service, shoddy quality, very arrogant attitudes, I can't say I have any sympathy for the big boys. Far from it, they deserve everything they get - they might learn to focus on their customers in future..

Michael, Leeds, UK

I cannot help but feel little sympathy for the major housebuilders. They have enjoyed massive profits over the past 10 years or so whilst gettng away with building badly designed lego houses of sub-standard quality up and down the uk. They will just have to tighten their belts like everyone else.

Martin Bassey-Fisher, Nottingham,

Chris, just how much profit do you think isin a house? After various incentives, deposit paid, carpets,curtains, stamp duty paid ,mortgage paid for a year, bla bla bla. No funds being made available from banks to build and no exit routes because the public get mortgages. Very serious situation.

Mark Connelly, surbiton, england

Mister G. Spooner, a expert in shares (sic!), said on the pages of the Times on Sunday, that Persimmon was a safe company......well, if this is the calibre of your financial experts, no mistery that your economy is in trouble!!!!

riccardo, brussels,

If other house builders follow Persimmon it doesn't bode well for the government's intent to build loads of houses (millions was it?).

Chris Oakham, Westbury, Wiltshire

SDLT is fundamentally a bad tax because it is 'inconvenient' in the classical sense. Instead of taxing income etc it hits people and businesses just when they have least money and are stretching themselves financially. It also leads to inefficient use of a scarce asset, property.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

stephen points out this strange (but traditional) phenomenon of thresholds on stamp duty but - just a thought, nothing serious- if the 10p income tax band was brought in as a threshold (like my added personal allowance for being over 65...) the Chancellor's troubles would vanish. John Simmons, FOD

John Simmons, Staunton, Coleford, England

Like others in the industry, their EBIT is around 20% over the last few yrs & that's for little 1 or 2 bed flats with no storage.

Here is a suggestion:
1) Build proper 3 bed "homes" for families rather than naive FTBs
1) Earn normal profits (10% EBIT) - reducing your avg sale price by £19,000

Jack Chad, READING,

Other building companies will build houses even if Persimmon want to give up. Surely building houses with less proft is a better life for Mr Farley and his workforce than being on the dole doing nothing.

Chris, Chipping Norton,

I think the suggestion that scrapping the stamp duty below $250,000 is crazy.Why not have a staggered system whereby the first £125,00 is except.The current system is a bit strange.Below £124,999.99p = No Stamp Duty but £125,000.01p = £1,250.A tax of £1,250 on 2p seems a bit unfair.(even for labour)

stephen hulton, eure, france