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Housing and the Credit Crunch

The hon. Lady makes a good point. Diversity does not stop at outright ownership, shared ownership and social rented housing. Of course we want a wider mix of options. Some of the good options now being looked at include the "rent now, buy later" scheme, which would help people who are not currently able to raise mortgage finance, but who probably will be able to afford to buy in due course and are therefore given an option to rent in the short term. I wholly endorse the comments from hon. Members on both sides of the Chamber about the merits of looking for ways to attract more institutional investment into the private rented sector, so as to provide more good-quality private rented housing. Diversity of tenure is absolutely crucial. Economically, it is a good safeguard against the kind of problems that we have seen over the past two years. Where there is diversity of tenure, there are options for people to move between tenure if they are in difficulty. It should not be only a one-way process of people moving from a rented tenure into owner-occupation. There are many circumstances where people in owner-occupation might find it easier to move into rented accommodation. That could be to remove the burden of meeting mortgage obligations that they find difficult to satisfy, or because they do not want to continue with the obligations of maintaining the property if they are getting elderly and require support and help. A more diverse tenure pattern is admirable, and something that we should work for.