Chancellor Alistair Darling believes the Government is "taking the right actions".

Someone buying a home for £175,000 will save £1,750 under the scheme, which is likely to cost the Treasury £600m. The government estimates half of all property transactions will now be exempt from stamp duty - up from one third when the threshold was £125,000.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the package of measures - including help for first-time buyers and families facing repossession - showed the government was taking action to help people through difficult times.

"Home owners need to know that we will do everything we can to keep the housing market moving," he told BBC News.
They are not going to help the vast majority of families facing a rising cost of living and falling house prices

Conservatives commented to say that they would scrap stamp duty for first-time buyers on properties worth £250,000 or less - said the measures were a short-term survival plan to keep Mr Brown in a job. The government has not said how it will pay for the £600m estimated cost of the stamp duty move.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said he would reveal more details in his Autumn Pre-Budget Report. He said the government was also considering ways of increasing the availability of mortgage finance.

Gordon Brown announced measures

"We face a unique set of circumstances that we have not seen in generations, where you have a credit crunch and where you have high oil and food prices.
"But I remain optimistic, as I have said on many occasions before, that we can get through it.
"We will get through it and today's measures, helping the housing market, are one example of how the government can help people."

 "Free" five year loans of up to 30% of a property's value for

  first time buyers of new homes in England

  Extension of powers for councils and housing associations

  to be able to pay off debt for homeowners who can no longer

  afford mortgage payments and then charge rent.

  Shortening from 39 weeks to 13 weeks the period before

  Income Support for Mortgage Interest is paid

  Bringing forward spending from future years to encourage

  more social housing to be built

Under the new loans system, called HomeBuy Direct, households in England earning less than £60,000 will be offered loans free of charge for five years on new properties, co-funded by the state and developers.
 

SO editors comment

These funding measures, which unlike the stamp duty will only apply in England, we have yet to see what the scottish government plans are to tackle the housing crisis in scotland

Sourced: BBC

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