The Mid-Anglian Enterprise Agency (Menta), the small business start-up group, hosted the breakfast meeting for about 60 people at the Angel Hotel, in Bury St Edmunds, last week.

Louise Holtaway, owner of 1st Class Mortgages, in Bury, told the meeting the housing market in the town was not down and out.

She said: "The situation isn't as bad as you read in the papers – it is business as usual."

She said there were a few firms which were still offering 100 per cent loans.

But she said fewer available mortgages were making people stay put.

"The number of purchasers has fallen, people are unwilling to move house and trade up, but for the average man in the street, it is not too bad," she said.

Simon Theaker, of Coakley and Theaker estate agents, in The Traverse, Bury, said house prices were falling as purchasers dried up, making it a buyers' market.

As first time buyers found it hard to get on the housing ladder and buy-to-let investors reined in their spending, these were difficult times.

He said: "It is very tough, but it isn't as doom and gloom as it could be.

"There are still properties coming on to the market and people willing to buy them."

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