Brown dismisses housing crisis fears
The prime minister moved yesterday to assuage fears of a nationwide property crash - which would leave millions facing difficulty with loans repayments.
Speaking to the BBC, Gordon Brown claimed that the current threat to the sector was "containable" and that a return to the mass repossessions of the early 1990s was not likely.
The comments came in the wake of new housing figures from loans lender Halifax, which showed that UK property prices fell by 2.5 per cent last month - a much bigger drop than anticipated.
"If you look back 15 years, we had 15 per cent interest rates, ten per cent inflation, rapidly rising unemployment, public spending having to be cut, taxes having to rise dramatically," Mr Brown said.
"If you look at this situation, because we've got low inflation we can cut interest rates, because we've had low debt we can afford to keep our public spending programme in line and to borrow at the right time to help the economy come through difficult times."
The Halifax figures also showed that annual house price inflation stands at just over one per cent - with the average home costing £191,500.
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