Allow social landlords to buy unsellable houses, says Cable

<p><p>Councils and other registered social landlords should be encouraged to engage in large scale acquisition of houses that cannot be sold in the current depressed housing market, in order to provide homes for the homeless or for those who cannot afford to buy or rent in the private sector, according to Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vincent Cable. </p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>In the IFS Annual Lecture, at the City Headquarters of Bloomberg this evening, Mr Cable argued that in addition to addressing social need, such a scheme would provide a cash-flow injection to the troubled house-building sector and would help banks cope with the credit crunch. </p><p></p><p></p></p>