Britain to extend housing market stimulus scheme

LONDON, Mar 17 (Xinhua): British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne yesterday announced a plan to extend the Help to Buy scheme for another four years to 2020 at a cost of around 6 billion pounds (or approximately 9.6 billion US  dollars).

Speaking on the British Broadcast Company (BBC) ahead of Wednesday's spring Budget speech, Osborne said the policy would help the building of 120,000 houses by the end of 2020, and it would only applies to the first phase of the scheme, which is designed for offering interest-free or low interest rate loans to new-build homes buyers.

The phase two of the stimulus policy, however, would see no change, said the Chancellor.