We need more rapid action to make these products more transparent

Being born before or after 1979 is apparently key to whether you're able to afford to own your own home or not. Older than 33 and you're likely to be already on the ladder, having bought a few years ago and seen values rise in the main. Younger than 33 and it's a massive struggle to put enough of a deposit together and to earn enough to secure a sufficiently large mortgage to get on the ladder. I'm north of 33 and the other day I looked at the price of my first flat, which is currently on the market, and realised that if I only had say a 10 per cent deposit then I probably wouldn't get a mortgage high enough to buy it. This was no palace. It was a more akin to a shoebox backing onto a railway track, typical of so many first-time buyer properties in London.

New data has revealed the number of people sleeping rough in England has risen by 23 per cent in a year.

Elderly homeowners are to be encouraged to move into smaller properties under government-backed plans, enabling councils to rent out their homes to families.

Council tenants who sublet their homes face prosecution and possible prison terms in a blitz on abuse of social housing. High earners could also be forced to pay the market rate for continuing to live in their council homes.

Homeless people can expect to die 30 years before the average person, research has found.

Compulsory redundancies in local councils are set to increase in the next few years as the spending squeeze from central government continues, a report warned today.

Enduring a live radio bust-up with John Humphrys has become a rite of passage for any ambitious minister.

Of all the injustices visited on our country's poor folk during what are now known as the boom years, none has been so grave as the rise in house prices. Today it is barely possible for the average man or woman to buy a shoebox-sized home for less than five times national median income, and in London impossible.

When MPs return to Westminster from their extended summer break today, one subject will preoccupy their thoughts. It will not be the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime, the plans to reform the NHS or the changes to abortion law, all of which are on this week's Commons agenda.

The squeeze on mortgage borrowers is easing, according to lending figures released yesterday by the Bank of England. Approvals for home purchases in July numbered 49,239, up from 48,500 in June. Approvals are now at their highest level since May 2010 as building societies and banks continue to increase their lending to prospective home buyers.

The problem, apparently, is red tape. It's stifling business and preventing growth, because red tape is evil, and you can no more argue in favour of red tape than say, "I don't wish to contribute to the fight against cancer as I think we should have more of it".