Dear Prime Minister,

There has been talk that the government wishes to bring back “wide multiplier” sectors of the economy first as we try to rebuild, one of these being housing, which as we know has a very long food chain – builders and their suppliers; DIY and furniture stores; banks, and law firms; and yes, it’s fair cop, mortgage brokers.

As usual, when the property market requires stimulation, all the rumours are around stamp duty, but most first-time buyers do not pay stamp duty anyway.

Yet, it’s exactly these potential first-time buyers that we could be helping out of the rental trap and onto the property ladder. But the actual reason they can’t do so in most cases is the deposit requirement.

It’s ALWAYS the deposit requirement.

It’s nigh on impossible to save up a 5 per cent deposit for many people, and not everyone is lucky enough to be able to rely upon the “Bank of Mum and Dad”.

In order to help the housing market get back on its feet I would like to propose a new idea; well a re-hash of a successful old idea actually: The Coronavirus Temporary Mortgage Guarantee scheme.

The scheme would work exactly the same as the Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee scheme that ran between 2013-2016 and encouraged banks to start lending at 95 per cent again after the credit crunch.

This version of the old scheme could be made available to all first-time buyers with a good credit rating who could demonstrate affordability – up to 100 per cent loan to value.

UK Plc would act as the Mortgage Indemnity Guarantee insurer, protecting the lenders against negative equity repossession losses for up to five years.

If property prices were to rise during the five year period then the risk of claims against the scheme would reduce and if interest rates remain low, then hopefully mortgage payments would remain easily affordable.

Could this scheme cause a spike in property prices? Yes, perhaps but is that much worse than the slump everyone seems to be predicting?

Could it price first-time buyers out in the future? Yes again, but at least we would be helping the first-time buyers of today.

Could this be viewed as “back to the bad old days” risky lending? Possibly, but stringent affordability checks would be applied and it’s only a temporary scheme, and one which I think would be far cheaper to run than other measures.

Desperate times call for bold measures – let’s Get Britain Moving!

UK Moneyman director Malcolm Davidson