Chancellor Alistair Darling is coming under even more pressure to raise the stamp duty threshold.

Halifax has published figures, revealing that the average stamp duty bill was equivalent to seven per cent of average UK earnings.

That is up on the five per cent figure recorded in 2002 and is a sign of the difficulties faced by many first-time buyers (FTBs).

"A growing number of home buyers are paying the equivalent of more than 20 per cent of local average annual earnings in residential stamp duty. This trend is most prevalent in the south of England. But, other parts of the country are being affected as well," said Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis.

"The higher stamp duty thresholds have not been altered since their introduction a decade ago. We call on the government to raise all stamp duty thresholds to account for the rise in house prices over the past decade and to index for house price inflation in the future," he added.

The National Association of Estate Agents has recently called for a complete overhaul of the stamp duty system.