Darling plans £1bn Budget boost for housing market

Chancellor Alistair Darling is set to announce support measures tomorrow in a bid to resuscitate the stalled housing market Alistair Darling is on the verge of putting foward a £1bn set of proposals in an attempt to revive the UK housing market and give the country's hard-pressed construction industry a much-needed boost.

The Budget is likely to contain measures to allow the Treasury to join in partnership with private companies to allow housing developments that are under threat to be completed.

The move will entail the government finishing infrastructure works that private companies are usually required to include as part of development plans and it is also likely to buy some properties directly in order to turn them into social housing or shared equity schemes.

According to the Times, Darling is also set to extend the suspension of stamp duty on properties costing £175,000 or less until the end of the year. The holiday was brought in last September but the government has now decided "more needs to be done".

A source told the newspaper "We need to unlock these developments but just as important we need to ensure there is a construction industry left when the recovery gets under way. This is a perfectly legitimate government intervention in the market."

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Suzy Jagger, the Times: Business groups and opposition parties have attacked the Government for the speed with which it is implementing bailout schemes as the economy spirals into the worst decline since the Second World War. About 140,000 people a month are losing their jobs, the Council for Mortgage Lenders is expecting 75,000 homes to be repossessed this year, and the economy is set to suffer the steepest decline since the 1940s.

Larry Elliott, the Guardian: Tomorrow's announcement follows concerted lobbying by the construction sector, which has said the government is well off track to hit its target for house building. Richard Diment, director general of the Federation of Master Builders, said yesterday: "We're sinking deeper and deeper into a massive housing crisis, and we cannot afford to use the state of the economy as an excuse for doing nothing about it."