Government plans to scrap stamp duty for properties under £175,000 sounds great for first-time buyers struggling to get on the housing ladder.

But will everyone benefit and will any of the other measures announced today to boost the ailing housing market?

Q: Who will benefit from the stamp duty holiday?

A: Anyone buying a home for between £125,000 and £175,000 will be exempted from the 1 per cent tax for a year starting tomorrow.

At present homebuyers purchasing properties that cost between £125,000 and £250,000 have to pay 1 per cent of the price to the Government in tax. The change, which applies only to residential property, will save a total of £1,750 on a £175,000 house.

The Government estimates that half of all property transactions will now be exempt from stamp duty. Previously, one in three transactions did not attract any tax when the threshold was £125,000.

Q: So the typical first-time buyer won't have to pay stamp duty?

A: It depends where and what they buy. In the north of England and East Midlands many first-time buyers already avoid the tax because they pay less than £125,000 for their properties.

In the north of England the average price paid by a first-time buyer last quarter was just £104,354, according to the latest figures from Nationwide Building Society.

However, in London, where the average first-time buyer property cost £241,985, most will gain little or nothing from the stamp duty holiday. Nor will many in the South East and South West, where prices are also relatively high.

Q: What happens if I am already in the process of buying a property?

A: The key date for stamp duty is completion, so buyers who have already exchanged but won't complete until after today will be able to benefit. You might even want to renogotiate the price to benefit from the stamp duty holiday.

Q: Who will still pay stamp duty?

A: Where the purchase price is more than £175,000, stamp duty at 1 per cent will apply to the whole amount. Buyers of properties worth more than £250,000 will continue to have to pay 3 per cent in stamp duty. Homes above £500,000 attract 4 per cent tax.

Q: Is any other help being offered to first-time buyers?

A: Households earning less than £60,000 will be offered loans free of charge for five years on new properties to help cash-strapped borrowers part buy a property.

The shared-ownership scheme, Homebuy Direct, will offer five year loans of up to 30 per cent of a property's value for first- time buyers of new homes in England. The scheme will be co-funded by the Government and developers.

Once the five-year "free" period is up, homebuyers will be asked to pay a fee of 3 per cent of the loan.

At year 10, interest will be charged at the same rate as the Bank of England base rate at that time. The charge will then increase by a set rate linked to the retail prices index, each year.

However, it will be possible to decrease the loan size by buying more shares in the scheme until you own the property outright.

Q: What about aid for struggling homeowners?

A: The Government is introducing a mortgage-rescue scheme to help thousands of families in danger of having their home repossessed. Homeowners struggling to meet their mortgage repayments will have three options.

The first is to sell a share of their property to a housing association (a registered social landlord), in the process reducing the size of their mortgage. This is called shared ownership.

If, for example, you sold off a 25 per cent stake in the property you would own and be responsible for paying the mortgage on only 75 per cent of the property. When you sell, the housing association will demand a cut of 25 per cent of the value at that time.

Social landlords will also be able to offer an "equity loan" to a borrower — shared equity — again enabling the hard-pressed borrower to reduce their mortgage payments.

The final option is for the housing association to clear the debt completely, allowing you to stay in your home as long as you pay rent.

Income support for mortgage interest is also to be made more widely available from next April. The period before income support is paid will be shortened from 39 weeks to 13 weeks.

Q: Sounds expensive. How much is this going to cost?

A: The Government claims that the package, including increased spending to encourage more social housing, will cost £1 billion.