Hi

What do people make of Mr Darling's move to scrap stamp duty on shared-ownership homes until buyers own 80% of the equity?

Will it do anything for the market and to bring back those first time buyers?

Well, we are all just sitting here trying to make sense of it actually. Maybe I'm a bit thick but is he really saying that Stamp Duty is deferred? So what is the incentive to buy a property outright?

I thought the first half of his speech was good stuff and started to feel quite confident, then it all went downhill for me.

The only incentives I could see were to go and have more babies which is not only too late for me but highly irresponsible given the state of the planet and over population!!!

Hi

Ha, yes, well, I don't really get it either and I was hoping someone could explain!

I think though that it is deferred stamp duty for joint buyers, cutting purchase costs. But why for joint buyers only? I don't get it!

But I agree - I thought there was barely anything in the budget to merit much. I think the government has very little room to do much at all except gradually lower interest rates and hope the pound keeps weakening and exports are boosted.

So far they are being boosted - the trade deficit was £10 billion less in Jan than the previous month at just £7.5 billion. The second month in a row it's fallen. Half of those exports are heading for the eurozone, which is great so long as the euro stays so strong.

Cheers

I'm sure this will be his one and only budget.

This government just won't accept the lower growth forecasts that everyone else is stating for 2008 & 2009. And as for 2% inflation!!! get real...

Hi Tom F

Totally agree! He became a liability as soon as the Northern Rock fiasco began.

This from, the FT, made me almost laugh out loud....

'Turning to the beleaguered housing market, he said it was “imperative” lenders could access stable funding from wholesale markets. He said the Treasury and regulators would meet investors and lenders to develop market solutions to the problem.'

Does he really think that 'market solutions' can be found by calling a few meetings with Treasury officials? He certainly doesn't seem deterred by the fact that the rest of the world's banks have been unable to do this. Be interesting to see what the 'solutions' are when they're discovered!

cheers

Um... shouldn't the BOE be controlling of interest rates, not the Gvt??? (Tongue in cheek)

Interesting that you say it's his only Budget Tom, he clearly thinks not as he's said that some of his policies cannot be overturned by the next Gvt - he can't legislate against this if an opposition party succeeds to Gvt so what's he on about?