Total association applicants could top 100 after HCA revamps scheme
25 more landlords to offer mortgage rescue
The number of housing associations offering the mortgage rescue scheme is set to more than treble following a plea for help from the Homes and Communities Agency.
The HCA wrote to all its 76 investment partners in October in a bid to increase the scheme’s capacity. This was because the HCA was concerned that the 22 homebuy agents running the scheme had nowhere near the capacity to meet the government’s ambition to rescue 6,000 households from repossession. An Inside Housing survey of 13 of the agents found they had the capacity to help just 475 households (Inside Housing, 21 August 2009).
But this week the HCA revealed that 84 new landlords have applied to take part. So far 25 have been accepted. The rise in applications follows a number of changes to the scheme in a bid to make it more attractive. The allowance for administering the scheme has increased from £3,600 to £4,500 per household, and the HCA also published a toolkit for running the scheme successfully.
Peter Jones, head of investment regional partnerships at the HCA, said there had been 169 completions under the scheme in November. The capacity of the scheme was expected to increase in line with the jump in housing associations involved, he added.
A spokesperson for the HCA said: ‘The actual number is anticipated to be much greater and we are in the process of following up to confirm the exact position.’
Rose Crossman, sales and marketing manager at Aldwyck Housing Group, which is already a partner, said: ‘The scheme is a lot better now than it was because the HCA made a lot of changes to it which have made it more attractive.’
Marilyn DiCara, director of sales and marketing at Moat, said it had doubled its £5 million spend on mortgage rescue since the changes. It had rescued 23 households by the end of December and is looking to rescue 60 by the end of March.
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Readers' comments (5)
vh | 08/01/2010 9:37 am
£5m to 'rescue' 23 households? This doesnt seem good value to me unless the RSL gets an asset worth £5m back. I am sure that if lenders were offered £4,500 for each household in trouble, they would snap the govm'ts hand off. No admin, freeze the loan, job done
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Puzzled | 08/01/2010 10:12 am
As vh has commented, how on earth has it cost £5m to rescue 23 households? Worse still, is it £5m? They say that they have doubled efforts to the tune of £10m!
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Not so puzzled | 08/01/2010 1:23 pm
I think readers will find the £5 m referred to in the article is the budget set aside by Moat to rescue homeowners in difficulties and not , as 'vh'and 'puzzled' have concluded, the spend Moat has inurred rescuing just 23 households.
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Cazz | 14/01/2010 11:01 pm
LA's could be a very useful partner here - particularly where former RTB stock is concerned. Why have the HCA ignored this possibilty? There are an increasing number of LA's getting HCA funding so it cannot be that there is an issue wth that. Where is the sense in having more than 1 landlord in a road?
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daisy | 01/02/2010 7:34 pm
I satisfied the conditions for mortgage rescue, my lenders were keen, my local council and CAB supported me, but two local housing associations have turned me down - no good reason, but the house is a bit of a one-off, and they don't want it on their files. What a waste of time! The government should have put more pressure on housing associations if the scheme was to succeed.
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