The Conservatives would scrap stamp duty on sales of primary residences if they won the next election, Kemi Badenoch has said, in a policy-heavy speech designed to improve her standing as Tory leader and her party’s economic credibility with voters.

Badenoch told her party’s conference she would abolish the tax that new buyers in England and Northern Ireland have to pay on house purchases over £125,000, at an estimated cost of £9bn a year. Stamp duty would still apply to additional properties bought by companies, and for purchases by non-UK residents.

She made the promise at the end of a four-day conference in Manchester during which she has bolstered her precarious position at the top of her party with two assured speeches and no direct challenge from her clearest rival, Robert Jenrick.

“Home ownership should be a dream that’s open to everyone,” she told the conference. “Abolishing stamp duty on your home is a key to unlock a fairer and more aspirational society. Scrapping stamp duty will benefit people of all ages, because conservatism must speak to all generations: the young professional buying their first flat, the couple looking for somewhere to bring up their first baby, the growing family hunting for their forever home.”

In an attempt to answer questions about her vision for Britain, she said: “I stand for stronger borders and a stronger economy – so that the young can fulfil their potential, the old can live out their years in dignity, and everyone can achieve their dreams to own a home, run a business, raise a family.”

Many economists are highly critical of stamp duty, which they say slows the housing market and discourages people in smaller families from moving out of larger homes and freeing up space for others.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has been considering replacing the tax with another form of property tax, though sources say she is unlikely to do so in this year’s budget.

Badenoch said it should be abolished entirely, however, as a way to stimulate the housing market and the broader economy.

She said the policy was affordable because of a separate promise to make nearly £50bn in spending cuts by 2029. Though economists say the promised spending cuts are vague and difficult to assess, the Conservative leader said they would generate enough to allow tax cuts and deficit reduction after the next election.

The pledge came at the end of a Tory conference littered with policy announcements, including promises to leave the European convention on human rights, to repeal the Climate Change Act and to slash welfare payments.

The slew of proposals contrasts with Badenoch’s insistence earlier this year that the party would not set out its policy stall until 2027.

An aide explained that the change in strategy had come during the summer, when Badenoch met a voter on the doorstep who told her he did not know what the party stood for. “When she was knocking on the door in July 2024, she spoke to an older gentleman in her constituency who said: ‘I used to know what it meant when you wore a blue rosette.’

“Over the last 14 years, people lost an idea of what the Conservative party stands for … What you have seen from this conference is this is what Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative party stands for.”

While Badenoch put a major tax cut at the heart of her speech, she said she would not promise others without first cutting the deficit.

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In a passage aimed at drawing a line under the damaging Liz Truss era, she said: “Securing our borders, getting people into work, policing our streets, defending the nation – none of it is possible without the money to pay for it.”

She promised a “golden economic rule”, should the party retain power, which would mean spending at least half of any savings on reducing the deficit.

“That’s the Conservative way,” she said. “Responsibility today, opportunity tomorrow.”

Cutting a relaxed figure on the conference stage, Badenoch peppered her speech with lighthearted asides and jokes, many at the expense of Labour.

“There is an old joke that a diplomat is someone sent abroad to lie for their country,” she said in an attack on the former ambassador to Washington. “Well, at least in Peter Mandelson, they had a man of experience.”

Unlike Keir Starmer in his speech last week, Badenoch largely shied away from attacking Reform head on. Despite the fact her party now trails Nigel Farage’s party by about 10 points in the poll, she rarely mentioned him by name.

In one oblique reference, she appeared to encourage her party not to engage with the Reform leader. “As George Bernard Shaw said: ‘Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.’”