Mr. Barry O'Leary:

On shared ownership, the Housing Finance Agency has a continuous dialogue with local authorities and the feedback they are providing is that some of their clients with shared ownership loans are experiencing difficulty. In the majority of cases, the loan is approaching the end of the term and the clients are realising that the rental portion has not been redeemed. We are examining ways of addressing this issue. As the Chairman noted, the agency did not design the scheme, although we fund it. It is important for us to offer solutions to local authorities to help their clients. The difficulty that will arise if we start offering annuity loans is that many of those with shared ownership loans are approaching the end of their working lives. However, many of them also have significant equity in their homes and are keen to find a solution to the problem. We have been exploring this issue with local authorities for the past six months and hope to have something to offer them shortly.