Building Societies Association
Chancellor Darling's first Budget covered a number of areas of interest to building societies.
On the housing and mortgage side, the BSA welcomed the decision to exempt some shared ownership properties from stamp duty, and to extend the shared ownership schemes to allow buyers to purchase as little as 50% of their property. However, this will do little to help the majority of aspirant first time buyers who are ineligible for the schemes.
The Chancellor also announced plans to stimulate the development of long term fixed rate mortgages. Again while welcoming the Chancellor's interest in this area, the BSA believes that the real challenge is stimulating consumer demand for such products since those lenders that have offered long term fixed rate mortgages have reported low levels of take-up.
Plans were also announced in the speech to roll out the Saving Gateway nationally. The BSA urges that the scheme will be as simple as possible minimising the administrative burden to providers and the reporting requirements. We also hope the Government will ensure that as many people as possible can participate in the scheme, and that the match rate will be high enough to attract them to do so.
And while the BSA welcomed the changes to the ISA regime that come into force in April 2008, we expressed disappointment that holders of stocks and shares ISAs will not be able to transfer to cash ISAs.
