A range of measures designed to boost the UK's beleaguered housing market were announced by the Chancellor.

A range of measures designed to boost the UK's beleaguered housing market were announced by the Chancellor.

Alistair Darling said the current stamp duty "holiday" on house sales of up to £175,000 will be extended to the end of the year.

And he said he intended to encourage lending with a scheme to guarantee mortgage backed securities.

In addition he said the government would devote £500m on plans to kick-start stalled housing projects, with an additional £100m for local authorities to build energy efficient homes.

The measures were described as insufficient by the Scottish house building industry who said Mr Darling had "missed an opportunity" to help housebuilders and first time buyers.

Jonathan Fair, chief executive of the industry's representative body Homes for Scotland, said: "Improving the overall availability of mortgage finance still remains key to solving the problems facing our sector so in that sense we are very pleased to hear that the Chancellor is to finally introduce a trading and guarantee scheme for new mortgage backed securities. And whilst the six-month extension on stamp duty relief for properties less than £175,000 is encouraging, we are disappointed that the Chancellor did not take the opportunity to, at the very least, initiate a fundamental review of the whole outdated system, especially in the context of residential investment opportunities.

"Furthermore, with first time buyers the lifeblood of our industry, the Budget has done nothing to encourage them back into the market."

The Council of Mortgage Lenders described the measures to help the housing market as "modest", and added that while they were helpful, they were unlikely to have much impact overall.

Adrian Coles, director-general of the Building Societies Association, said the extension of the exemption on stamp duty would not boost the housing market "substantially".

He said: "The BSA urges the Government to take this a step further by researching how the stamp duty system could be reformed to reduce the distortions from the current slab' structure of the tax that results in the bunching of transactions at prices just below the thresholds for different rates."

Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, said: "Merely extending the stamp duty threshold is disappointing.

"Mr Darling could have seized the opportunity to encourage first-time buyers to the market and to send a signal of confidence that may have reverberated around the economy."

Gillian Charlesworth, of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said the stamp duty move "will only have a major impact if steps to increase levels of mortgage lending are also effective".