Brown meets bank chiefs as housing gloom grows

9.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 16th Apr 2008

Gordon Brown looking glum

Gordon Brown has held a meeting with bank chiefs to discuss way to boost confidence in the housing market. Downing Street said the talks were not a crisis summit and had been in the prime minister's diary for some time. The talks came as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported that its members had their gloomiest view of the property market since its survey began in 1978 (see below). The Bank of England has also put £15bn more into the banking system. Mr Brown will travel to the US this week to meet finance chiefs to discuss the global credit crisis. Chancellor Alistair Darling is to hold separate talks with mortgage lenders next week.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor said

· Alistair Darling should be taking the banks by the scruff of their necks, not tugging at their sleeves. It is time he made it clear that taxpayers will not be made to bear the brunt of mistakes made by the banks.

· In return for the money being pumped into the market and the guarantees being offered by the Bank of England, banks need to come clean about the full level of their losses.

· Lenders must stop anti-social repossession practices. While some high street banks already ensure that repossession is a genuine last resort, many sub-prime lenders repossess in a highly aggressive manner.

· The financial sector needs to accept that there can never again be a credit boom like this ever again. Credit must be more tightly controlled in boom periods to help mitigate the effects of a slowdown.