BSA: Chancellor needs to spell out H2B exit

The society praised the Chancellor for promoting house building by extending the Help to Buy: equity scheme to 2020, but added that the mortgage guarantee element of the scheme should be wound down.

Robin Fieth, BSA chief executive, said: “On Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee we hope that a clear exit strategy or a timetable for this part of the scheme will be spelled out.

“We are chronically under-building in the UK. Supply of homes clearly has a knock-on on house prices and the ability of purchasers to raise a deposit.”

Fieth also said that the Budget should also focus on updating Stamp Duty which he claimed is woefully out of date and causing the market to be distorted.

He said: “We've been asking for years. Hopefully this will be in the budget.”

The Scottish Assembly will implement a progressive tax system for Stamp Duty next year and the Welsh Conservatives are calling for the thresholds to be increased to £250,000.