Insider Media Limited

The Midlands property industry and local government officials have welcomed announcements in yesterday’s Budget on relocating public-sector jobs to the provinces and raising the stamp duty threshold for first-time home buyers. Chancellor Alistair Darling announced that 15,000 government jobs would be moved out of London and the South East in the next five years. This is expected to include the relocation of the Ministry of Justice. Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham, said: “We will be working hard to promote the city in this sector over the coming months to ensure Birmingham is firmly on the radar of senior Whitehall decision-makers as they examine relocation options.” Martin Guest, managing director of the Birmingham office of property consultancy CB Richard Ellis, said: “The big fish is the Ministry of Justice. Birmingham has to be one of the favourite regional cities to bag this, since we have oven-ready office space and sites, a good skills base and the proximity to London required.” Meanwhile, Birmingham property developer Chord has welcomed the raising of the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers to £250,000. Geoff Shuttleworth, a director at the company, said: “We applaud this attempt to kick-start the flagging housing market. This will make a tremendous difference to first-time buyers trying to get on the property ladder.” How has the Budget affected you? Click here to email us to share your views.