At last.  The Government has finally woken up to the fact that there is a repossessions crisis coming on down the track.  In interviews over the past couple of days, both Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have sought to reassure homeowners that they recognise the problems they are experiencing and are ready to step in to help.  Caroline Flint and, in her new Treasury role, Yvette Cooper, are holding meetings with concerned stakeholders.
 
About time too.  For the past three months, I have been trawling round Department after Department trying to convince Ministers and senior officials that they need to act.  Last week, it was James Purnell at DWP.  The week before Caroline Flint and a senior official from Ministry of Justice.  LSC, Treasury, CLG – we’ve done them all, sometimes alone, sometimes in partnership with lenders or other advice agencies.
 
And now they are listening.  Which is a start but scarcely enough.  What matters more is what they are intending to do.  What sort of pressure are they going to put on lenders about their repossessions practice (it is too late to put pressure on about the lending which got us into this mess)?  What money will they free up to fund good quality advice and support services for those in trouble?  How are they proposing to repair the holes in the safety net which were created in 1995 once the memory of the last repossessions crisis of the early 1990s had faded?
 
These are the challenges for Government.  It is all very well for them to make the right noises.  But they also have to take the right actions.