SIR – Is the mortgage deposit guarantee scheme announced by Government all it’s cracked up to be or will it be like similar moves from Labour last time, simply encouraging people to buy what they can’t afford, which was a major contribution to house price inflation?

Only owning say 80 per cent of the equity in your home is a dangerous position to be in, especially when the time to repay the rest comes a few years down the line.

Some won’t be able to find the money and may lose their home, while others could find themselves unable to move up the housing ladder as the 20 per cent they didn’t own takes too much out of the re-sale value of their existing house.

Plus of course making so much – easy – money available to lenders is contributing directly to very low interest rates for savers, putting many, especially the retired, at a serious disadvantage.

Being a homeowner myself, having been fortunate to be able to pay my mortgage off 22 years ago, I am all in favour of others having the same chance. But the terms under which people enter the market must be commercially viable, which sadly this new scheme may prove not to be.

D S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Leeds