Campaign targets struggling homeowners
The government is launching a campaign to raise awareness of the support available for homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgages.
Adverts for the ‘It’s Your Home’ campaign will appear in the press, online, and on billboards, telling people about the measures the government has put in place.
These include putting pressure on lenders and the courts to ensure repossession is a last resort, improving advice services, and launching a mortgage rescue scheme that allows borrowers to sell part or all of their home to a housing association to reduce their debts.
The campaign will run across England, but will be more high profile in 22 areas that have been identified as repossession ‘hotspots’ (see below).
The adverts will direct people to a website and advice line, which also includes access to examples of people who have been supported by the various measures.
Housing minister John Healey said: ‘In most cases where people seek help they are able to keep their home, so we have made sure a range of support is available to them.’
Backing the campaign, Council of Mortgage Lenders’ director general Michael Coogan, said: ‘Avoiding possession is as important to lenders as it is to borrowers, and an early warning will help reduce the risk of this worst-case outcome.’
Homeowners seeking advice should visit www.direct.gov.uk/mortgagehelp, or call the National Debtline on 0808 808 4000.
The 22 hotspots
- Barking and Dagenham
- Corby
- Knowsley
- Salford
- Newham
- Walsall
- Redditch
- Halton
- Sandwell
- Wolverhampton
- Nottingham
- Birmingham
- Manchester
- Bolton
- Liverpool
- Sunderland
- Reading
- Swindon
- Northampton
- Kingston-upon-Hull
- Cannock Chase
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