The British Property Federation (BPF) has called for action to deal with the heart of the nation's housing problem, rather than solutions that 'tinker around the edges'.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake Up To Money programme, BPF spokesman Andrew Teacher welcomed a new £200m mortgage rescue scheme but pointed out that only 3,000 people would be helped this year, while an estimated 75,000 faced repossessions.

"It's the attitude of 'get a home now, pay for it later' that got us into this mess in the first place," he said.

The BPF also called for ministers to engage with the commercial property sector to develop a branded rental sector and said that housing support payments should go back to being made directly to landlords.

"If we're looking at keeping people who cannot afford mortgages on their homes by turning them into renters, then it makes perfect sense to encourage a larger, more professionalised rental market that will be there to help people in the future.

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"Getting people on to the housing ladder who could not afford to be there is what's got us into this mess and there's simply no easy way out. Many housing associations are in trouble and face similar problems to private house builders who have bought land at the top of the market and now can't do anything with it. It's vital that the commercial developers, with the means to generate long term funding streams, are brought into the debate and that we start to develop new, innovative ways of delivering housing.

"It's vital that ministers start to see the real value in build-to-let and can work with us to make the necessary changes to allow the housing crisis to be turned around."

Intense lobbying by the BPF on build-to-let over the last two years has been highly successful, with many influential people now discussing how rented accommodation, particularly funded by institutions and commercial property companies, can make a real contribution. Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Sir Bob Kerslake, chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, have both spoken about their desires to get more homes built for rent.

The build-to-let model would see homes built en-masse for professionally managed rental, akin to the commercial sector. Developers want to see rental developments treated differently from owner-occupation through the planning system and also want stamp duty to be charged on a per-dwelling basis, rather than on an entire transaction.

(CD/JM)