The rise in the jobless count makes it essential that the Pre-Budget Report should contain detailed plans to save homebuyers in difficulties from repossession. The Government has delivered some recipes for solutions to this problem; we now need something oven-ready. These measures must take into account other pieces of housing policy, such as the plans for council house tenure reform and a High Court ruling that could result in an escalation of repossessions.

Margaret Beckett, the Housing Minister, is considering fixed-term tenancies for council houses that would compel the better-off to move out. The debate over this proposal has centred on the threat to communities. But there has been less focus on where people would move out to.

Shared-ownership schemes ought to be the answer because many ex-council tenants would still not be able to afford to buy their own homes, despite their above-average earnings. But far fewer such developments will be built, according to Knight Frank. This leaves only the private rental sector. But a High Court ruling involving GMAC, the UK lending arm of General Motors, exposes hitherto unpublicised risks in this option. Usually a lender must obtain a court order before it evicts a borrower in arrears and sells the property. The High Court ruled that a lender would be entitled to circumvent this procedure to repossess a buy-to-let borrower who had missed only two mortgage payments.

Perhaps the parlous position of its parent company (on the road to bankruptcy unless help arrives) is causing GMAC to take these steps. But other “secondary” lenders are likely to be excited by the opportunity that the verdict presents to dispose of properties and then evict their former owners for trespassing. No need for touchy-feely debt counselling.

Natalie Minott, a property lawyer at Eversheds, says that mainstream lenders are not exploiting the statute that permits this brutal course of action. She adds that a repossession protocol that comes into effect next week will oblige lenders to employ extra zeal to keep borrowers behind with their repayments in their homes. But the GMAC case still highlights the risks faced by tenants, in particular those renting from landlords who have not been open with their lenders. These tenants may find themselves thrown out within weeks. As one such former inhabitant of a now-repossessed rental flat says: “How could I have known my landlord was letting his flat without his lender's knowledge and breaking the term of his loan agreement?” This person is not a victim of repossession, merely a casualty. But his misfortune still illustrates the need for constructive action now.

Eighties cheek

A return to the ways of the early 1980s is regarded as the likely future of mortgage lending. Despite deregulation elsewhere, a pre-war style deference still characterised the relationship between lender (usually at that time a building society) and borrower. Funds were given to those who had accumulated savings with the society and the six-times earnings loan multiples were unheard of.

The prudence that marked these dealings may be desirable if we are to avoid another unsustainable house price spiral. But, to date, the conduct of the lenders - building societies that became banks in the 1990s - suggest that they will not be re-adopting some of their erstwhile practices.

In the 1980s loan offers may not have been lavish but they were easy to understand. As one bank boss said to me this week: “Back then, we were mean - but we didn't pretend otherwise; we're still mean, but we spin it differently.” The banks' response to last week's base-rate cut illustrates this.

After the Chancellor's reprimand, most lenders passed on the reduction - and made much of their generosity. But /they also withdrew many deals. The near certainty of further base-rate cuts makes base-rate tracker mortgages the most attractive choice. However, there are now no tracker mortgages without restrictive terms available for anyone with less than a 25 per cent deposit. Back then, they would not have tried to hide this with self-congratulatory press releases.

The end of beige as we know it

The transaction seizure in the property market is having one surprising result - an explosion of colour. As people are staying put rather ascending the housing ladder they no longer feel obliged to decorate their homes in the neutral style pleasing to buyers. This meant beige, greige, taupe - to which I admitted a year ago that I was becoming overexposed: £12 million flats and £175,000 semis were all kitted out in cappuccino, identical in all but cost.

Marks & Spencer calculated that customers would wish to cocoon themselves by surrounding themselves with colour, pattern and bling, although maybe not quite to the extent to the picture above. This has proved to be the case. If you are not going to be showing someone around your house in the next few months, why not snuggle up under a Swarovski sparkly bed cover (£95)?

anne.ashworth@thetimes.co.uk

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