The Budget round up

The Chancellor has said the economy will shrink by the biggest amount in modern times – down 3.5 per cent in 2009 – before recovering slightly to grow by 1.25 per cent in 2010 and 3.5 per cent by 2010. He has extended the stamp duty holiday until the end of the year for houses under £175,000 and provided an extra £80 million for shared equity mortgage schemes. Other moves include increasing the scheme to guarantee mortgage backed securities to boost lending and the allocation of £500 million to kickstart stalled housing projects, while local authorities will get £100 million to build energy efficient homes.