The UK government is due to announce, or hint at, further measures to boost the economy next week, including a whole or partial implementation of the Crosby Report into the mortgage market. Author of the report is Sir James Crosby, a former boss of Halifax Bank of Scotland, who had the good sense to get out before the whole thing imploded. But Crosby's conclusions are sensible, namely that the Government should guarantee some at least of the various multi-billion pound packages of mortgage-backed securities the UK banks hold. All mortgages these days go into a package of sorts, no lender offers one-off mortgages any more (unless you want to buy a £20m home in Kensington Gardens). But today these things are virtually worthless, not because the mortgagees won't pay their mortgage but because the banks can't sell them on. So a government guarantee for these loans would stabilise the market, improve the banks' balance sheets and allow them to use their newly-acquired spare cash to boost lending to first-time home buyers. Such at least is the theory.