Cooper promises to limit repossession
Treasury minister Yvette Cooper has pledged to ensure mortgage lenders only repossess homes as a ‘last resort’.
The chief secretary to the Treasury and former housing minister told The Observer newspaper that the government would take action to force banks to adopt a more lenient attitude towards borrowers who struggle to meet repayments.
‘We need a more responsible attitude to repossession,’ she said. ‘We need to do everything we can to keep people in their own homes.’
The Council of Mortgage Lenders has predicted 45,000 homes will be repossessed by the end of the year.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph the chancellor Alistair Darling indicated that the government will alter its spending priorities to increase its support for housing, energy and small business.
He is expected to set out more detail of his plans in the pre-budget report, which is likely to be published in the next few weeks.
In 2007 the government set out its spending priorities until 2010/11, giving it little room to reallocate funds. However, it can bring forward spending from later years to deal with immediate concerns. It has already done this to increase investment in affordable housing.
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Readers' comments (2)
Lesley Healey | 21/10/2008 10:38 am
The little detail emerging around this announcement seems to focus on the court stage of proceedings. That's far too late as arrears are an unmanageable debt by that point and there are always additional costs from the mortgage lender too. People struggling with mortgage payments really need early help to avoid arrears mounting up - e.g. through debt, budgeting and alternative lender advice. An intervention requiring mortgage companies to actively refer people in arrears to a debt advice service would be far more helpful.
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michael barratt | 24/10/2008 8:29 am
Until recently Housing minister and now Treasury minister Yvette Cooper has pledged to ensure mortgage lenders only repossess homes as a ‘last resort’. ‘We need a more responsible attitude to repossession,’ she said. ‘We need to do everything we can to keep people in their own homes.’
In contrast, housing association tenants being only eight weeks in arrears with their rents maybe evicted from their homes on mandatory grounds in respect to which a judge in granting an order cannot exercise discretion other than to ensure the correct procedures have been followed, even in circumstances where the rental arrears are not the fault of the tenant i.e. non payment of housing benefit due to clerical error.
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