The correction in the housing market has hit sales of the Aga, the iconic but expensive cast iron cooker and symbol of middle England comfortable domesticity.

Delivering a trading update today ahead of Aga Foodservice Group's annual shareholder meeting, the company's chairman Vic Cocker said that UK sales of Agas had made a "bright start" to the year but are now expected to be flat for the whole of the first half.

Company sources confirmed that the trading update implied a fall in sales of Agas over the past few weeks, co-inciding with a drop in housing sales and a general tightening by lenders on both mortgage debt and personal home loans.

Starting prices for the Aga range from £5,000 to £6,000 per cooker. They can run on oil, gas or electricity.

Aga sales boomed in the mid noughties co-inciding with the boom in the housing market. Their popularity became synonymous with the rising wealth of the middle-class and the emergence of a new eco-chic set after it emerged in 2005 that David Cameron, the then newly installed Conservative party leader, had an Aga at his family home near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire.

In Ireland, where house prices began to slide much earlier than mainland UK, sales of Aga have been down for the whole of the first five months of trading "where the market is very weak," Mr Cocker added.

Cash strapped home-owners and house-movers who want to buy into the Aga style seem to be trading down their aspirations, opting instead for the company's Rangemaster range of cookers where prices start from £2,000.

Orders of Rangemasters are up 5 per cent since the new year. Rangemasters run on electricity.

Mr Cocker said: "Trading is mixed and sector data indicates the value of cooker sales has fallen this year in most international markets. Rangemaster's good orders growth has continued and orders are up over 5 per cent this year."

Aga shares led the FTSE 250 fallers today, down 13.5p to 293p, off 4.5 per cent.

Orders for the company's Fired Earth range of homeware business are up 10 per cent so far this year.

The company has set a target for Fired Earth for a return on sales of at least 5 per cent in the next three years. Overall for the group the company wants to raise its return on sales to 12 per cent.

The company is looking at "major initiatives," Mr Cocker added, to help offset "sustained pressures of commodity prices." The price of iron and steel - one of Aga's largest costs for its cookers - has soared lately due to a surge in demand from the Asian manufacturing industry.

Shareholders are expected to vote through today proposals made in March to return £140 million of cash via a 121p per share share scheme. Investors can receive the cash either as income or capital or as a combination of the two. Shareholders are also due to vote through a three for five share consolidation reducing the shares in issue to 69.2 million.

The cash-back follows on from last year's £265 million cash sale of its commercial foodservice and bakery equipment business. Aga has now made returns of £540 million to shareholders and paid £74 million of dividends of since 2001.

Setting the time

— The Aga cooker was invented by the Swedish scientist Gustaf Dalén in 1922

— It was introduced to Britain in 1929

— The Aga was initially available in cream, but in 1956 blue, green, white and black models were added

— An oil model was introduced in 1964, followed by gas in 1968 and electric in 1985

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