i really hope you have a moment to reply to my question because i havent a clue on how my mans mind ticks. we've been going out for just over a year now, im 22 and he is nearly 25. we have both got on so well and are very much in love. the thing is that this yr after summer im starting to rent a house off my mum and wanted him to move in with me. he initially asked me to ask him again closer to the time,

This was either to buy him some time to think about it, or because he didn't know whether you were being completely serious.  Men don't like to make plans until something is definite, at that point you were just proposing an idea, which might not necessarily be happening.

but with my mum wanting a contract signed and so on she was constantly asking me who else will be her tenant. my bf would tell me one minute how he wants to move out from his mums house and how we'd have a laugh, and then he'd say he's too skint ( he has a full time job and earns over £1100 a month which would more than cover the rent, id be paying half too! )

There's definitely something up here.  Either he feels you are rushing into moving in together, or he wants to preserve his cash, or he is not sure whether you have a long term potential.  Moving into together is a big commitment for men, men are not particularly good with commitment.  They only like to make commitment when they are completely sure, women once they've fallen in love with someone are keen to tie their bloke down.

Women tend to be very pushy and start to get a bit annoyed when a man is not showing commitment.  As a woman you need to do one of two things, either back off and give him some space and let him decide when he wants to move in with you.  Or let it effect your relationship and derive that he is not that committed to your relationship and therefore you should move on.  I would have to say that 1 year is not that long and my recommendation is that you give him more time to decide.  If you said your relationship was two years old, I would be more concerned.

and he'd moan about how all his mates his age are now settling down and he is still sad for living with his mum.

When a bloke is still living with his parents at the age of 25, he tends to get dependant on living with them.  He has a brilliant lifestyle, his mum probably cooks for him, and does all the housework and he probably gets a very discounted rent off them, therefore he will have loads of disposable cash.  Move in with a woman, he will have to share some of the household chores, take responsibility for certain man type jobs, have a woman nagging at him, have to deal with problems he hasn't dealt with before and lose most of his disposable income on rent, bills and household items.  There is therefore a tendency for a man as old as 25 to have become used to living with his parents and build up a phobia of leaving home.  Plus his parents might not be too pleased if he moves in with another woman after just one year, and depending on how old fashioned they are, some parents don't like their sons to move in with a woman until they are married (though, parents that old-fashioned are getting more rare).

He will certainly go through moments where he will want his own place.  Having his own place has it's benefits too, it's just he hasn't seen the benefits outweigh staying with his parents yet.  The benefits of having you own place to him, is you can have sex whenever you want, he can have his friends around, providing you let him.

another factor to complicate it is my mum, my bf doesnt like her because she did alot of things wrong bringing me up and i took on her role when my dad died. to me i think he should forget how my mum is and the fact that my mum owns the house, as tenants she wouldnt be in my life much, only if i wanted to see her (as ive never been close to her this wouldnt be very regular at all)!

This is a factor but I don't see it as a main reason.  If he felt absolutely committed and dedicated to you, he would certainly consider moving in with you.  As I say above, he just needs more time, you can't push a bloke.  It maybe that he is having second thoughts about your relationship and doesn't see you relationship lasting, it maybe that he thinks you are being too pushy, it maybe that he is just not ready for that commitment yet.  I would say it is probably the last option.

meanwhile whilst i was waiting for a 'will he/ wont he' answer, a mate katie from my work said she'd definately live with me, and although i know it would be fun living with katie i wanted to live with my bf more than anything else, a kind of 'knowing where my life is going' thing. ive since told him that ill have katie in the house and leave him to his own thing, maybe one day when he is ready we could get our own place.

sorry this has dragged on abit! i suppose what i really want is another mans opinion on why he doesnt want to rent with me, afterall its less of a commitment than doing the whole mortgage thing!

Yes it's less of a commitment than the mortgage thing.  But maybe he wants to save up, for you getting married and buying a house in a few years.  Spending money on rent, is not going to just throw the money away and he is not going to have enough money to spend on a potential marriage and house.

it upset me to think that he couldnt just say yes and make it a happy time for both of us.

Sorry but this is the way he will be seeing it:  It seems like many women, you are trying to push him into something too soon and being stroppy because he's not doing what you want him to.  Moving into a house together is a big step and big commitment, if he is not going to be happy with it, it's best he doesn't do it now.  It seems like you are being selfish, expecting him to say yes not to make you both happy, but to make you happy.  Don't get me wrong many women do this, they just don't see a man's point of view (which is understandable because women don't think like a man).  For a man to move in with a woman, it always has to be a decision he is confident will work, because it makes it difficult to move back with his parents if it doesn't work out.  And he doesn't want to end up alone, moreover it can often lead to many pressures in a relationship with you and maybe he is not ready for that yet.

instead its causing tension, he is now getting jealous that me and katie will have loads of 'lads' round, but he was the one who eventually said no to it anyway??!!

Yes, he would get jealous, that's a natural reaction because he values your relationship and wants to protect you from getting with any other men.  It shows he is serious about you, even though he is not ready for "a full on move into together relationship".