Some might chafe at the idea of people on salaries in excess of £85,000 receiving city council help to pay their mortgages.

But it is a measure of the problem facing the city in attracting headteachers to schools in disadvantaged areas, that the Town Hall has decided to step into an area that strictly speaking is not its responsibility.

A housing support scheme for key workers already exists, so the city with its housing association partner should be well placed to administer the scheme.

If it is successful in bringing the best headteachers to Oxford, it would be money well spent, for it is difficult to overestimate the role of a headteacher in changing the climate of a school.

There will be those who wish the equity loan scheme could be extended to include talented young teachers on far lower salaries, who cannot afford to make the city home in the long term.