Another committee for the old boys club members. The committee would be "entrusted with the stability for the whole financial system", the Chancellor told the Commons, adding: "Its job will be to identify bubbles as they develop, spot dangerous interconnections, warn about poorly understood financial instruments and take action to stop excessive levels of debt building up before its too late."
Unfottunatley the committee will be populated by the same people who turned a blind eye to the current situation. The boom/bust economy has been around for many decades it's not a new phenomenon. Always happens for the same reason, greed.

When I first got a mortgage, I could only borrow 3 times my salary. If it had always been like that, then maybe house prices wouldnt have gone up disproportionately in comparison to wages. We will never catch up now, its too late. I dont ever see house prices suddenly falling by 50 percent or something equally drastic in order to get things back to normal.

To have a mortgage limit is all well and good but due to several housing booms house prices are now way over 3 times the average salary and even with a huge deposit the figures still dont stack up for first time buyers. The problem is that during the last recessions there was no realistic re-adjustment of house prices.

3 times basic salary and no allowance for bonuses or overtime. Responsibility for checking earnings to lie with the lender - if checks not performed with sufficient vigour the - the lender must pass ownership to the motgageee with no additional charges.

The situation is nothing new in the mid to late senties there was a mortgage famine because generally only building societies gave housing loans.This was coupled with rising house prices in those days it was expected that you had a good savings record with the mutual society and were able to put up at least twenty percent as a deposit.
But there was an upside to all this when you got your place the percentage of mortgage to salary decreased over subsequent years as although we had inflation jobs were reasonaby plentiful and wages went up every year not like now where there a few jobs and salaries remain static.

In some countries 40 year mortgages are normal, and in a few, mortgages are even transferred down the generations. We have to take a much more flexible approach to this whole business. Oh, and lets rule that ANY repossessions that do not follow (say) a ten point plan of avoidance will immediately eliminate any banker bonuses. The ten point plan could be (among other things) .. extending the loan, taking on another borrower, consider council grants (they will have to pay to house them anyway), renting from the mortgage company, free transfer to another lender, etc etc.

The big mistake was allowing banks to get into the Home Mortgage Market in the first place - a market they did not understand properly .

It should be restricted by law to the local MUTUAL Building Societies - none of the MUTUAL societies got into trouble - but the non mutuals like Northern Rock, Halifax and Bradford & Bingley did and lost a fortune

about time no more credit cards salary for all 30k,and i mine all!!!!!!!!

I am in financial services. The biggest threat to the housing market is the fact that banks have been reluctant to lend money. I agree that some brokers and banks were irresponsible in previous years. However, I have been in the industry for 12 years and previously arranged a broad spectrum of mortgages. NOT ONE of my clients has ever been repossessed. This is because the onus was on myself and the client to prove affordability. I never arranged a mortgage for anyone who couldn't afford it. Also, I ensured that my clients were/are adequately protected with appropriate insurance to limit the catastrophic effects that death, redundancy and critical illness cause on individuals and families. The british banks and finance houses never had the same free and easy attitude as in America. As for limiting the income multiples to 3 times salary, that may work in some areas but would mean that places like London would have a stagnant housing market. Most lenders apply an affordability calculator to income and expenditure, rather than income multiples, this is a much more sensible option. In fact, this is exactly what happened in 2008, the majority of banks would only lend 3 times income. This made the credit crunch much worse as people couldn't borrow enough money to move house,etc and was a factor in causing the housing market to stagnate and house prices to drop. One of the biggest issues is that first time buyers struggle to find a large enough deposit to buy a property. It is only recently that higher loan to value loans have been available. I am concerned that availablility and affordability of mortgages will decline, thereby causing the housing market to drop.

Why can`t we have a system of borrowing via mortgages that is enshrined in constitutional law i.e - no one is allowed to borrow more than 3 times there salary (joint ot otherwise)? will this not go some way to stopping the boom & bust era? = it will keep the housing market stable.

Also I don`t know why more people don`t do there banking with credit unions = now they have a debit visa card linked to a savings account.