Alex Salmond has hit back at critics who claimed that he was dithering over the the impact of the credit crunch on Scotland by pledging to spend £60million two years ahead of schedule on affordable housing for first-time buyers.

The money, which had been earmarked for the 2010-11 budget, will instead be spent in 2008 and 2009 and would, said the First Minister, help address wider economic challenges as well as bolster efforts to boost the housing market. Mr Salmond also said that he hoped to persuade local councils to add a further £40 million.

However, opposition politicians attacked the announcement, claiming that it was a reversal of the SNP's decision to cut £90million from housing association budgets. Labour said there was no new money involved and that the Nationalists had already disappointed first-time buyers by reneging on a manifesto pledge to provide them with £2,000 grants.

Scotland's housing market is proving more resilient to the downturn than other parts of Britain, with average prices still creeping up, albeit by only 3 per cent since the start of the year. But the number of transactions is falling rapidly. In some affluent parts of Glasgow and Edinburgh, unsold properties are remaining on the market for longer and first-time buyers are finding it almost impossible to get a mortgage without a substantial deposit.

Mr Salmond said last night that while his administration's powers over the economy were limited, it would not “simply sit back and wait for conditions to get better”. He added: “These actions will help more people find new housing of the right kind, in the right numbers, in the right places.”

The move was generally welcomed last night by the business and construction sector in Scotland. The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations said that while the announcement did not mean extra funding, it welcomed the boost.

The Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland also welcomed the initiative and the CBI said that it would provide a welcome shot in the arm to the construction sector.

Mr Salmond used the annual Donald Dewar Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Book Festival to say that while Scotland had proved resistant to the worst effects of the slowdown, it was not immune.

He repeated his call for the UK Government to bring forward measures to boost the economy with immediate action to soften the blow of energy cost rises on household budgets.

These would include a windfall tax on energy company profits as well the introduction of a fuel duty regulator.

He also called for the the Scottish government to be able to access last year's budget under-spend of £42 million - which goes into Treasury coffers - and for a share of the additional North Sea oil tax revenues.

SNP ministers were disappointed yesterday when new figures showed that the NHS in Scotland is still narrowly failing to hit waiting time targets for cancer treatment.

It had been widely expected that the latest statistics would show that a target for 2005 - that 95 per cent of cancer patients be treated within 62 days of urgent referral - would at last be met. Instead, they showed that across Scotland, 94.1 per cent of patients were treated within this timescale compared to 93.6 per cent in the previous quarter.

The Scottish government pointed to the continuing improvement and said that if just 20 more patients had been treated within the deadline, the target would have been achieved.

The failure to meet the 95 per cent target came just days after an editorial in the latest edition of the Scottish Medical Journal, signed by 12 clinicians, said that the 62-day target did not reflect the various ways different cancers need to be approached, and was putting excessive pressures on staff.

Nicola Strugeon, the Scottish Health Secretary, used the publication of the new figures to urge health boards to make “one last push” to hit the target. She added: “It is encouraging that these figures show Scotland has recorded its best-ever performance in cutting cancer waiting times. But we can, and must, do more.”

Margaret Curran, Labour's shadow health minister, said that with funding increases at their lowest since devolution, it was no surprise that health boards found it difficult to achieve the targets. She added: “Labour would have continued to increase their budget to ensure that 95 per cent of patients were treated within 62 days of urgent referral.”

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