Adrian Coles, director-general of the Building Societies Association (BSA), said: "The Chancellor has thrown down the gauntlet to lenders. Government support for energy audits will raise the profile of making homes more energy efficient. Low cost loans, to make improvements to cut energy bills, could make properties more attractive in the long-run. Further incentives down the line could dramatically change consumer behaviour. For instance, by explicitly linking carbon neutral homes to the stamp duty regime, Brown has provided the incentive to build greener homes. This is something building societies will be examining carefully.
"One of the ways to make homes more affordable is to build more. There has been a fundamental mis-match between supply and demand. The commitment to 130,000 new homes will make a real difference to people who have struggled to get on the housing ladder.
"Helping people into homeownership is core to building societies. It is not the only answer, but 160,000 more families will benefit from owning a stake in their own home."
Stephen Leonard, director of mortgages at Alliance & Leicester, commented: "Alliance & Leicester is disappointed there was no mention of stamp duty thresholds. Our research reveals that six in ten (61%) first-time buyers are looking for homes over the current stamp duty threshold of £125,000, rising to nine in ten (91%) living in London. This is an additional burden on those first-time buyers already struggling with the continuing rise in house prices.
"First-time buyers currently make up around 40 per cent of the housing market. Not addressing the issue of stamp duty will deter first-time buyers from getting on the property ladder, with an effect on the entire housing market. The current average house price for a first-time buyer stands at £151,535, therefore the limit needs to be at least this amount to have any effect.
"Therefore, Alliance & Leicester will continue to press for first-time buyers to be made exempt from paying stamp duty."
The Council of Mortgage Lenders' (CML) head of policy Jackie Bennett said: "In theory, we welcome the stamp duty exemption for most newly-built carbon-zero properties. But we will need to see the detail before we can assess the impact of this measure.
"Similarly, the extension of shared equity provision is welcome. But, as the government acknowledges, it is no substitute for tackling the main cause of affordability problems, which is the significant imbalance between housing supply and demand."
Ricky Okey, managing director of Abbey Intermediaries, said: "The abolition of stamp duty to encourage buyers of zero-carbon rated homes is an overt acknowledgement of the impact stamp duty has on home-buying decisions.
“However, the fundamental impact of Stamp Duty on homebuyers is being ignored. Stamp Duty remains an unfair tax which punishes certain homebuyers and not others. The current system significantly distorts the housing market for homes around each threshold.
“Abbey is calling for complete reform of Stamp Duty. We support a graduated system to smooth out pricing anomalies and make the system fairer for all."
