The Pre-Budget Report was supposed to improve the availability of mortgages. Instead it has merely exposed how many different views exist on how, or even whether, this crisis should be resolved - all scarcely helpful for anyone hoping to buy a home or remortgage, or who is wondering just how far prices will fall. Suddenly, Alistair Darling and the other individuals who have the power to make home loans more plentiful resemble nothing so much as pantomine villains, twirling their moustaches and shaking their fists, but with little real menace.

Sir James Crosby, former CEO of HBOS, called in to investigate the home loan drought by the Chancellor, believes that the banks' aversion to lending “could cause the housing market to overshoot on the downside”. Sadly, although Sir James recognises the damage that could be wrought unless HBOS and the rest become more generous, he can make only recommendations.

Mervyn King, the Bank of England Governor, who could do something, sees the return to normal lending “as the single most pressing challenge to domestic economic policy”. But the Bank is also said to be less than keen about Sir James's big idea: government guarantees for mortgage-backed securities issued by banks, so providing more funds to be advanced to homebuyers.

The Bank, or so it is said, would prefer that the banks devoted their cash to small businesses, rather than supporting house prices that are now more affordable for first-time buyers. Those first-time buyers, that is, with indulgent parents and no need to borrow.

Mr Darling will say nothing more about Sir James's mortgage-backed securities proposal until the full Budget next year - which suggests that he is also less than enthusiastic. He is placing his faith instead on a new panel that will monitor lending.

As the panel's enforcer, Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, has proclaimed that he will force open the banks' coffers, punishing any resistance in the courts, or even by nationalisation. This pantomine villain oratory could terrify the banks. But then again it might not.

The Chancellor did little else to bolster the housing market, neither ensuring that more struggling borrowers are saved from repossession, nor introducing new concessions for first-time buyers, without well-heeled mothers and fathers, as we report on pages 8-9. The national insurance and income tax rises, due to take effect in 2011, will affect people on middle incomes, potentially delaying the market's recovery, forecast to begin in that year. The power of higher earners to spend on property will also be suppressed by the new 45per cent income tax rate.

Maybe Mr Darling is trusting that the spirit of competition will once more inspire bankers. In a letter to The Times this week, Eric Daniels, CEO of Lloyds TSB, pledged to keep on lending to homebuyers - which could encourage rivals with sufficient wherewithal to loosen their purse strings. The next few months will show whether Mr Daniels is more scary than Lord Mandelson.

Santa baby, tell me how to haggle

Retailers are reducing their prices for Christmas and so, too, are the sellers of properties. The latest Nationwide survey may show the pace of price falls slowing to 0.4 per cent this month, but those who want to sell are not minded to wait around to see if this indicates that the market is stabilising. Data from Globrix, the property website, indicates that asking prices have been cut by an average of 6.5 per cent since November 10 in Birmingham, Manchester and other cities. Rightmove, another website, also provides evidence of an outbreak of pre-Yule realism, reporting that agents are requiring sellers to lower their expectations.

Cluttons, the estate agent, finds City boys in their Battersea, Clapham and Shad Thames habitats most prepared to be pragmatic, thanks to their familiarity with the “trading culture”. They are prepared to slash as much as 25percent off their property's peak price to find buyers and are sloping off to rented accommodation to “de-leverage” - in other words, to pay off some of their staggeringly high debts.

All this is exciting the bargain hunters watching price movements on websites. But some observers believe that many of these types do not have what it takes to move from dreaming of a deal to striking one. Stuart Law, of Assetz, the property consultancy, notes that many people are not demanding the discounts of 60 per cent or more now obtainable on new-build homes, if you have the cheek. As he says: “It's just not very British to drive a hard bargain.”

Slim chance

The Victorian house pictured left has a very narrow appeal - in the most literal sense. It is just 8ft wide, though described by its owner as feeling quite spacious. The property, in Ely, Cambridgeshire, used to be a store for the ladders of a nearby, long-closed brewery It is on sale for £299,995 via David Clark & Company. There will be many jokes about only slender buyers being interested, but at Bricks & Mortar we decline to be sizeist.

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