Vince Cable

A survey by the Lloyds banking group (which now includes the Halifax) shows that housing affordability, locally, is at its most affordable for seven years because of falling house prices and low interest rates.

In 2007 mortgage payments for a new borrower in Twickenham were 63% of, their, disposable income (after tax) - based on house prices and interest rates at the time. The figure has now come down to 40%.

The bank admits that, despite improvements in affordability, it is now very difficult to get a mortgage at all.

Vincent Cable said: "families wanting to get on the housing ladder in the borough will find these reported improvements of largely academic interest since it is very difficult to obtain new mortgages at all without a 20 to 25% cash deposit. Since average mortgages locally are around £250,000, this means a cash deposit of at least £50,000. First time buyers simply don't have that kind of money. It should now be possible for the state owned banks to advance 85% mortgages without risk of negative equity on new loans.

"Local estate agents tell me that there is a lot of interest in buying at the moment and I would hope that we shall soon get back to normal conditions, though without the extremes of recklessness we have seen in the past".