Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats' mild-mannered Treasury spokesman, is a man little inclined to making sensational statements. So his warning yesterday that "house prices are no longer simply falling, they are crashing," is a sign of the times.

The double-digit fall in Nationwide's index, closely matching last month's report from Halifax, a rival lender, confirms that the housing market's problems are now of similar scale to those experienced in the early 1990s recession.