In his first budget today the Chancellor revealed that there will be no stamp duty on shared ownership homes until the owner owns 80 per cent of the equity.

Alistair Darling also confirmed in the budget that it will be launching a new shared-ownership housing scheme in April, which will see the old scheme extended to key workers who can only afford 50 per cent of a home.

The current Open Market HomeBuy scheme is available for those who can afford 75 per cent of a home.

Darling also repeated his wish for more long-term fixed-rates, such as 10, 20 and 25 year fixed-rates, to be on offer in the mortgage market. They are quite common in the rest of Europe and in the USA, but they have never taken off over here.

Mr Darling had no further details to announce other than the Government would be seeking views in the mortgage market on how this could be done.

Darling says the Government will then report back in the next Pre-Budget Report.
"I will seek views on how we can deliver - drawing on international experience - the right framework for the UK to achieve affordable, long-term fixed rate mortgages", Darling adds.