Britain cuts stamp duty property tax

LONDON (Reuters) - Stamp duty, a tax on house purchases, will be cut to help families to afford to buy homes, British finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng said, with the nil-band threshold for home movers doubling to 250,000 pounds ($280,000).

The nil-band threshold for first-time buyers will also increase to 425,000 from 300,000 pounds, he told lawmakers on Friday.

($1 = 0.8937 pounds)

(Reporting by Paul Sandle and David Milliken; editing by Alistair Smout)