Another story in the Sunday Telegraph Business section is that buy-to-let landlords (who control properties all over East Devon, particularly Cranbrook) have realised that to avoid extra taxes announced last year all they have to do is incorporate companies and take advantage of the reduced corporation tax and other opportunities.
Although there are costs to this route, and they mostly benefit higher tax band ps, there are worthwhile tax advantages for anyone who owns 10 or more properties.
In any case, with all such landlords, any increased costs will be passed on to increased rents.
East Devon Watch 
It is normal for people to find alternative ways of managing their affairs in order to reduce their tax burden. This is the difference between tax avoidance (legal) and tax evasion (illegal). I would assume that the government would have assessed how people would do this before making the change to stamp-duty.
It also seems likely to me that this would only apply to new buy-to-let purchases, as it relates to stamp duty upon purchase – and transferring the assets to a ltd. co. would presumably incur another round of stamp duty.
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