Guy Gittins, chief executive of Foxtons, has issued a pointed call for Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to use his political weight to push for stamp duty reform, warning that London's housing market is sliding into a deeper and more prolonged slump than the headline figures suggest. The intervention comes as Foxtons' own trading data shows sales volumes across the capital falling well below pre-pandemic norms, with agents reporting that transactions in prime and mid-market boroughs have thinned out to levels not seen since the aftermath of the 2016 stamp duty surcharge on second homes. Gittins' argument is straightforward: London, unlike much of the rest of the country, is structurally exposed to a tax that was designed for a housing market with very different price dynamics.