What about bringing back mortgage tax relief ?

Just had a thought whilst shaving this morning, what about mortgage tax relief ?

The problem is that too many people are defaulting on their mortgages. Currently all the plans seem to bail our the banks at the expense of the people.

What if mortgage tax relief, say on a set amount of the mortgage (as used to be the case ) was used to keep mortgages affordable - stop the defaulting and keep the banks safe ?

I realise there were market distortion reasons for getting rid of it, but if we're going to have to distort the market anyway ?

PS Perhaps Bradford and Bingley will be different to Northern Rock, as we now know the government will stand behind small northern banks. This fact may be enough to prevent to queues outside branches that killed of Northern Rock.

Update: This idea has just been backed by Guido here.