What Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Spring Budget means for the property market

The government is also cutting the higher rate of property capital gains tax from 28 per cent to 24 per cent, which Jeremy Hunt believes will increase revenue by encouraging more transactions.

However, there was no change to the Lifetime ISA, LISA, boost threshold of £450,000 for would-be buyers saving for their first home.

Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has campaigned for the threshold to be higher given that house prices have increased substantially since the LISA was introduced.

The Chancellor told him that he “wanted to do a big home ownership package but that doesn’t work until property prices are definitely rising” He added that he does want to reform LISAs. When is the question?

Henry Jordan, Nationwide’s Director of Home, said: “We are disappointed that the Chancellor hasn’t announced any substantial measures to support first-time buyers.”

Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns at estate agency body Propertymark, wanted to see the Chancellor cutting higher rates of Stamp Duty for buy-to-let investors, which he says could boost supply of rental homes.

The Federation of Master Builders say the Budget was a missed opportunity to build new homes and improve the ones we have, to make them more energy efficient, which would have stimulated economic growth across the county, says the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Brian Berry Chief Executive of the FMB, said; “The Budget could have been an opportunity to kickstart the housing market with house building rates stagnant, but the Chancellor has done nothing. It was also disappointing there were no new measures to help homeowners improve the energy efficiency of their homes. This was an opportunity to reform the planning system, boost local authority planning teams’ capacities, and review the financial burdens the planning system places on smaller house builders, but again these much-needed reforms have been overlooked.”

He added: “The Chancellor could have helped to close the construction skills gap ensuring the UK has the workers with the green skills needed to retrofit the UK’s homes, and provided support to help small builders deal with the administrative burden of training apprentices. All these areas could have grown the economy, instead builders got left behind. This Budget was a missed opportunity.”

He concluded: “The Chancellor’s announcement to increase the VAT threshold for small businesses from £85,000 to £90,000 is welcome but the rate has been frozen for seven years so in real terms it makes little difference.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer has condemned the government for not tackling reform to the planning system and for not taking urgent action over the lack of affordable housing.