Chancellor Gordon Brown doubled the stamp duty threshold to £120,000 in his budget yesterday but critics say the limit is still too low to benefit many first time buyers.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders said the new threshold was still to low and others such as the Halifax, Nationwide and the National Association of Estate Agents said the help was not enough to help first time buyers across the country.

"The stamp duty concession is naturally welcome, and will help some first-time buyers," said the CML, "- although its effect will be muted in southern England where affordability is worst. The starting threshold would be over £150,000 if it had been index-linked since Labour came into office."

Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove.co.uk said, "Some first time buyers will clearly welcome this news, but only a very limited number in some regions, due to the way prices have risen."

Only 15% of homes below threshold

Analysis of 440,000 properties on the Rightmove.co.uk site shows that there are only 15% priced at below even the new threshold of £120,000. Just 2% of properties in London and 7% of properties in the South East are on the market at less than £120,000, with many of those shared ownership or retirement properties. In the South West, it is 10% and in East Anglia it rises to 16%.

Other more northern regions of the country are the main beneficiaries, with a greater number of properties priced at below £120,000 - 23% in the West Midlands and in Wales, up to 32% in the North.

"Of course," says Mr Shipside, "once a property's price goes over the threshold, you pay stamp duty on the full amount. This change is likely to be seen as regionally divisive as it will help some people in regions like the North and Yorkshire & Humberside - and virtually no-one in London and the South East."

Mr Shipside thinks it would have been much fairer to waive or reduce stamp duty for all 'genuine' first time buyers, so that people in all parts of the country can benefit and get a little help from the government to get on the housing ladder.

Peter Bolton, NAEA chief executive welcomed the move saying, "The chancellor should be praised for finally responding to the overwhelming pressure from the housing industry to update the archaic stamp duty system."

However, he agrees that the move did not go far enough. "With average house prices across the UK now 150 percent higher than when the base level was last amended in 1993, a more significant increase in the minimum threshold to 150,000 pounds was needed to make any real difference to the majority of homebuyers," he said.