Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown yesterday dismissed fears of a crash in the housing market.

Despite a reacceleration in house prices, he said while the cost of servicing debt in proportion to people's income stayed low, there would be no crash.

Mr Brown was asked if he was worried about house prices as he attended a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington.

He said that economic growth was becoming "more balanced" this year.

Monday April 26, 2004