Pressure on movers and lawyers as more than 75,000 buyers in England and NI forecast to miss deadline

• ‘Desperately hoping’: the buyers who risk paying thousands more

A stampede to complete property purchases before the 31 March stamp duty cliff-edge has caused a shortage of removals services, with more than 75,000 buyers forecast to miss the deadline and pay thousands of pounds more.

The property website Rightmove is calling for a short extension to the stamp duty deadline by the government.