Brown to reveal housing market plan

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown will set out plans on Wednesday to shore up the creaking housing market as part of a drive to reverse a slide in support for his government.

Reforms of the banking regulation system, whose failings were exposed last year when Britain suffered its first run on a major bank in more than a century, will also be among legislative plans unveiled by Brown, his office said.

Brown, who took over from Tony Blair less than a year ago, is trying to win back support of voters squeezed by rising food and energy prices as the economy is slowing and the global credit crunch raises the risk of a house price crash.

The Labour Party slumped to its worst performance since the war in this month's local elections as mounting economic woes and fatigue with Labour after 11 years in power led voters to desert the party in droves.

The election drubbing led to sharp criticism of Brown and questions from some in his own party about whether he was the right man to lead Labour into the next parliamentary election, which he must call by 2010.

If the Conservatives repeated their local election result at the next parliamentary poll, they would win by a landslide.

Brown's legislative plans for the year ahead are intended to reinforce the government's message that it is "on the side of the British people" during the economic slowdown.

They will include plans to help first-time home buyers, almost frozen out of the market by high prices and rising mortgage costs.