WITH housing among the key areas of focus of today s budget, Chancellor Alistair Darling has pledged an estimated �1 billon into getting the housing market back on its feet. While this means good news for many, leading estate agent Harrison Murray says it

WITH housing among the key areas of focus of today's budget, Chancellor Alistair Darling has pledged an estimated �1 billon into getting the housing market back on its feet.

While this means good news for many, leading estate agent Harrison Murray says it wishes the Chancellor had listened harder.

Despite the budget proposals to extend the stamp duty holiday for homes up to �175,000 to the end of the year, Harrison Murray claims this will continue to leave sellers out of pocket.

Nick Salmon, commercial director, whilst welcoming the Chancellor's budget announcement on the Stamp Duty Land Tax, has expressed regret that Mr Darling ignored calls to suspend or fundamentally amend the SDLT laws.

He said: "As we have come to expect, the Chancellor has failed to listen to property industry experts who have said that SDLT is a brake on the property market.

"It is regrettable that he has missed the opportunity to deal with this iniquitous tax on moving."

Other housing budget key announcements include:

A scheme to guarantee mortgage backed securities to boost lending.

Stamp duty holiday for homes up to �175,000 to be extended to end of year.

Extra �80m for shared equity mortgage scheme.

�500m to kickstart stalled housing projects.

�100m for local authorities to build energy efficient homes.

�50m to upgrade housing for the armed forces.