Prices have to go down, our housing bubble requires it. As the IMF and everyone else has been saying, UK houses are way over-valued. It's just tough I'm afraid: You buy a property, you take the risk that the price goes down as well as up.

Adam Beadle, London, England

You can't blame a govt. for crazy expectations and peoples' fecklessness. A deal's a deal, shame on you if you back out. As for the market bottoming out in July, what a joke prices are going to fall much further. Unreal, all of it.

Richard, Bournemouth, UK

I wrote to the Chancellor,the easy solution is to increase stamp duty to 10% for companies, buy to let landlords, second homes owners and non UK residents, 7%(like in spain) on homes over 2 million and abolish it for the rest of us.Treasury loses no money and market is kick started.

nigel, cobham, england

"63% of (current) buyers who had put in overs over the last three weeks...." that probably amounts to about 63 buyers. THE HOUSING BOOM IN THE UK IS OVER AND A SERIOUS CRASH IS UNDERWAY and no fiddling or hoping will change it. Get used to it, tighten the belt...but dont expect to sell your house.

kenny livitt, hove,

We always have to pay for Labours incompetence. When are we going to see accountability from this government?

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

Darling just does what Brown tells him to do or not do. He is a puppet Chancellor, in a puppet Cabinet. Away with the lot of them, they aren't fit to run a fairground stall.

Jeremy Poynton, Frome, England

For a party so reliant on "Spin" it is quite remarkable that they are so insensitive of the consequnces of their actions, but we have seen this before in Gordon Brown's farcical handling of the "Phoney Election"

Jeremiah, London,

This chancellor needs to go. His dithering on Northern Rock helped to exasperate the credit crunch and now this on stamp duty. Alistair Darling is clearly the Frank Spencer of finance. We need decissive leadership and not his bungling which is now leading to anpther into recession.

Shelly, St Albans,

Incompetance and misunderstanding of how the world works what more to expect from a Labour Govt? But it such actions can also be seen as a malicious scorched earth policy as they head towards a lost election.

john hartley, Redhill, England

It would have been so simple.Reduce the Tax to nil for the first price band,then 1%,and 2% for the next two price bands,that takes all of two seconds to implement .Unfortunately we have people like Brown and Darling who have no "work " experience and no Common Sense.

Ed corbett, bridgend, wales

Lets think with our brains and not our hearts.
Have a look at USA house prices they are well done in some areas the drop is 60 and 70 %.
Many experts feel the UK will have another 20 or 30 % to drop on top of the 10% drop we have seen.
So total drop from the peak is a guess at 40%.
rent is cheaper.

Jay, Manchester , uk

Why would anyone expect anything else from this government after after a decade or waste and incompetence?

Colin, Edinburgh,

McBroon and McDarling don't dither, I discovered. Vague announcements are simply to run down the clock. There's no thought being given to any policy or plan - none of the gang have a clue what to do or how to implement anything - none have had a real job. Anyone decent person would just resign.

Padraig, Perth, Australia

The bubble is bursting, and thats a good thing for most people, see Iain McWhirters piece in The Sunday Herald. If anything Darling has, surreptitiously, expedited the busting of the bubble and best for it had to happen, bad medicine should be swallowed quickly. Its Browns whose to blame anyway.

Daniel Cowan, Glasgow, Scotland

Great at banning carrier bags, mind you that policy seems to hsve died a death but when it comes to things that really matter Gordon and Ali seem to be suffering from not having the leadership that Tony obviously gave them. Come on boys its time to resign and let us decide who governs the country

james, southampton, england

If the Government really wants to get the market going it should announce stamp 0% now, 2% April 09 and then 5% April 2010. There's nothing like a deadline to encourage buyers . Currently they are proving 500% inept - how dumb can they get!!!!

andrew Moore, brighton,

Darling's is dithering, you say. I don't think so. This insipid, pointless little man isn't really Chancellor any more than I am. This fantastic, incomprehending dithering is the hallmark of Bungler Brown, our unelected 'leader'. This lame-duck government is still capable of doing terrible harm.

Jacques Francis, westcott, UK

This is yet another example of the inability of Brown's administration to provide political and thus economic leadership. Brown cannot make quick decisions which is essential as PM. As he has no vision or leadership qualitiies you get leaks and speculation. The result is paralysis.

Rupert, London, UK

Doesn't this remind you of the very early 1990's? An inept change in government regulation caused first-time buyers to withdraw from the market and the collapse gradually worked its way up. Hard luck Britisher pals.

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan

Rubbish! Why would any potential buyer be interested in saving 1% on the price of a house <250k, when they can wait 12-24 months and see 15-30 times that knocked off the price by the crash that is under way? This is another sad attempt by those with vested interests trying to talk up the market!

nick h, warwick, uk

Just more of this Labour governments dithering .Can they do nothing right. The country could not survive a further five years of Labour incompetence. The country would never recover.

john, hull,

Uncertainty over stamp duty is not to blame for the fall in prospective buyers. It is that buyers feel that property is overvalued. Given that the IMF think that UK property is overvalued by 50%, this seems a reasonable view. Estate agents desperate to avoid a property crash! Ha, FTB's revenge!

TWD, London, UK

That is exactly the point. Many people will be able to avoid 10-20K of tax if this happens. You'd be stupid not too wait and Darling was naive and incompetent not to expect this too happen! He should either have announced it with immediate effect or done nothing.

Andrew, Melbourne, Oz

Property not moving because 1) no more cheap money 2) British property still 25% overvalued after 10% fall to date 3) banks are soaking remortgagers to repair balance sheets for CDO losses 4) LTV ratios crushed - need 20% deposit or equity to get a mortgage. Darling's follies pale. Get used to i

Rod, Woodstock,

Surely civil servants talk these matters through before advising politicians about statements the government are preparing to put out.Any group of business people holding a policy meeting on a such a serious matter would have spotted this one a mile off.

Alan Barrett, Leatherhead, UK

Another nail in Labour party's coffin!

Vivek, London, UK

I'd have thought this was a pretty obvious result...

JP, Herts, UK