The announcement this morning of the Government's latest scheme to help struggling mortgage payers stay in their homes effectively sees not-for-profit housing associations attempt to beat the sell-to-rent-back companies at their own game. They will buy your house; you stay in it by renting it back.

The scheme will give long-term stability to thousands of families, said chief executive of the National Housing Federation, David Orr. He added that it would also undermine "shadowy companies currently making money out of people's misfortune" who offer to buy properties at below the market value, promising the owners they can have a tenancy agreement before changing the terms of the contract.

Right. But there's an element of confusion here. The Government's £200m will - apparently - pay for a mixture of purchases and temporarily loans (which the homeowner can pay back at a more financially secure time). If it's the latter, are housing associations really set up to process and run loans? If it's the former, what happens in ten years' time when potentially thousands of ex-homeowners wake up to the realisation that the Government now owns what used to be their increasing asset, and which the Government picked up at the bottom of the market during a temporary dip?

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