Mr. Simon Crone:

The underwriting authority would be under a delegated model so we would agree what terms and conditions and lending policy the lenders should be using. That is why we apply our level of prudence, to make sure they are not doing anything that even approaches sub-prime lending. The decision will be made by the lender and then we sit behind the lender. We delegate the decision on whether to lend within a prescribed set of rules and the lenders carry on working as they would do today.

On the Senator's second question, the scheme has definitely helped the supply side. We have seen a 25% increase in house building activity in the UK on the back of the help-to-buy scheme. The data shows that 95% of the scheme operates outside of London. It is fairly well accepted now, after the initial question as to whether it was driving an increase in house prices, that it is not doing so because most of the activity is outside of the area where the bubble is forming, namely, London and the south east. It has been targeted by limiting the size of houses and by making sure that it is focused on first-time buyers outside the real hot spots in the country.