You can take another look at this week’s news and we’ll round up the most thought-provoking or unmissable comments posted after stories or letters sent straight through to the editor.

Remember, we will be picking the best reader’s comment each week. Scroll down to the bottom to find out if your comment was our favourite from last week.

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Banks must share the blame for low demand

Mortgage Solutions | 31 May 2011 | 11:53

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Melanie Bien

I find it incredible that the banks are blaming low demand for the lack of lending. Perhaps they should look at their underwriting criteria compared to what it was some years ago than perhaps they would realise that it is much more difficult for first-time buyers and those with even the slightest impaired credit to get a mortgage.

You need a 25% deposit to get the best rates available. I am not suggesting we go back to the situation as it was previously, but a more sensible and inventive approach to lending would boost lending and help the housing market get back to a better level of transactions. This in turn would help the recovery of our economy.

John Pokora

31 May 2011 | 13:53

Potential first-time buyers abandon buying

Mortgage Solutions | 31 May 2011 | 11:26

Kay McLellan

This is the time the government should bring back the open market Homebuy scheme which was a very fair and popular scheme and helped first-time buyers. They must however stop wasting time on the Homebuy Direct scheme, which only helps middle earners and selected builders in selected areas.

David William

31 May 2011 | 14:47

IPPR:”Tougher mortgage market regulation” needed

Mortgage Solutions | 31 May 2011 | 12:23

Simret Samra

What planet does this man live on? To blame coal face mortgage lending as the reason for the credit crunch is naive in the extreme. Did he forget about US lending on sub-prime? Buy-to-let already requires a healthy deposit and must be able to support the mortgage by 125%.

David William

31 May 2011 | 15:09

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FSA bosses paid £900k in redundancy since financial crisis

Mortgage Solutions | 31 May 2011 | 15:04

IFAonline

This is where our fees go. It’s much like public sector pensions, which use up 20% of council tax before it starts paying for any services. These ridiculous rewards should be stopped for the parasites that regulate working people and produce nothing but more paperwork and cost to the public.

Robin

01 Jun 2011 | 09:47

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EC Directive: Treasury joins CML fight back on mortgage regulation

Mortgage Solutions | 02 Jun 2011 | 10:36

Vicky Hartley

There are two massive issues here – the first being that the Treasury thinks it’s okay for lenders to do half of their mortgages on a non-advised, execution-only basis, which tells me that they don’t believe in mortgage regulation or do not take it seriously. The second is that the FSA seems to have gone ahead with much of the MMR without waiting for the law of the land to catch up with them.

Stuart Rae Duncan

03 Jun 2011 | 09:39

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Rental sector ‘under threat’ from unlicensed agents

Mortgage Solutions | 02 Jun 2011 | 09:05

Kay McLellan

I do wonder when the government is going to help the increasing number of landlords that have tenants who disappear with their money. It’s okay regulating the agents and I back this 100%, but the law with regard to tenants also needs changing. I recently had a tenant pocket rent totaling over £1000 and it is classed as a “civil” matter.

Caroline

02 Jun 2011 | 11:34

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MS Poll: Do clients want interest only just for cheaper payments? Vote now

Mortgage Solutions | 03 Jun 2011 | 10:16

Mortgage Solutions

Through our training, experience, or fear of the FSA or perhaps even peer opinion, most advisers only ever talk about one risk – investment risk. Interest only with a suitable repayment vehicle is clearly more risky in the traditional sense, but surely offers more control over finances and offers greater security against affordability risk. As such, interest only has so much more to offer than the general ill-conceived opinion regards costs.

phil

03 Jun 2011 | 11:09

Lenders’ responses to the FSA’s stance on interest-only is another example of why mortgage regulation does not work. People take interest only for a number of reasons, including improving their cash flow. Some want the flexibility of keeping payments low until they downsize. In fact, if there is a chance that a client may lose their job – it is easier to build up a cash buffer on interest only rather than being locked into capital repayments. Interest-only is a far more flexible method of repayment.

John

03 Jun 2011 | 11:58

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How would you define a good or a bad broker?

Mortgage Solutions | 02 Jun 2011 | 16:27

Mortgage Solutions Part of being a good broker is to tell clients about direct deals too. However, I disagree that you lose business. In fact you will establish the client’s trust by doing that and he will believe you when you tell him that the bank’s priority will be to sell its rubbish protection and that he will face underhand tactics with the banks making it appear that it’s compulsory. I had a case last year where Yorkshire Building Society tried to make life assurance compulsory but as soon as the client, with my prompting, said that he would report them because it wasn’t on the KFI, it produced action.

Des Platt

03 Jun 2011 | 12:23

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This week’s star comment came from Kim Andrew Lincoln who discussed the effects of rising inflation:

I am sure that if Mervyn King thought that raising interest rates would reduce inflation he would do it, but the way our economic system has been set up makes it impossible to control because it is the issuers of money and private banks who control the economy, not the Bank of England. Only when the state takes back control of the money supply will it be able to eradicate inflation for all time.

Any student of economics knows that when there is more money in circulation than goods and services to buy, you get inflation. Only when the inflation generator, the giant ponzi scheme called fractional reserve lending is abolished will we be able to stop the theft of our labour and wealth through the devaluation of our money – and Mervyn King knows it.

Kim Andrew Lincoln

01 Jun 2011 | 11:58

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