We have the same objections to rents to loans as we have to rents to mortgages -namely, that the scheme is completely inappropriate to the current Crisis in the Housing Market.

There is a Crisis in the Housing Market, and it has been manufactured by escalating unemployment.

On 30 March this year, I expressed my concern in the House to my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor about the Crisis in the Housing Market.

May I support the request of my hon. Friend the Member for St. Helens, South (Mr. Bermingham) for an urgent debate on the Crisis in the Housing Market?

When we consider the Crisis in the Affordable Housing Market, I doubt whether the Bill will be seen to contribute much.

That problem is partly related to the lack of new home building - particularly social housing - but is also a by-product of the overall Crisis in the Housing Market.

The current Crisis in the Housing Market over mortgages and the rest may well lead to a slight reduction in house prices, if not to a rapid fall in some parts of the country.

Is he not even more embarrassed to announce a £200 million fund to purchase unsold houses, when, by my reckoning, that will cover only 1,000 homes - far too little to make a genuine impression on the deep Crisis in the Housing Market?

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the current Crisis in the Housing Market presents a real opportunity to get away from the emphasis on property ownership and back towards providing homes for people?

Sir James was later asked to advise and report on sorting out the Crisis in the Housing Market.

If we had not tackled the situation, interest rates would have risen and we would have triggered a true double dip with a Crisis in Our Housing Market.

Given what I would regard as something close to a Crisis in the Housing Market in all forms of tenure, I think it would be appropriate for us to set that out in the Act.

Finally, how can the Government reassure us that this will address the underpinning cause of the Crisis in Our Housing Market - the lack of supply?

The Government's legislation announced today will permanently embed the Crisis in Our Housing Market for future generations.