Departmental Consultants
Communities and Local Government
Written answers and statements, 5 November 2009
Grant Shapps (Shadow Minister (Housing), Communities and Local Government; Welwyn Hatfield, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent by his Department on consultancy services relating to the establishment of (a) the Homes and Communities Agency and (b) the Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme; and which organisations provided services for each project.
John Healey (Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government; Wentworth, Labour)
The Department spent £322,613 (excluding VAT) on consultancy services to support establishment of the Homes and Communities Agency. The consultants used were Stanton Marris LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bridget Skelton Ltd., Turner and Townsend and Blake Lapthorn.
PricewaterhouseCoopers provided commercial expertise to support development of our interventions to prevent repossessions, in particular to inform negotiations with lenders on their forbearance policies and liaison with the money advice sector, and advise on the interface with the regulatory framework. The total cost was £1,143,883 (excluding VAT). Statistics from the Financial Services Authority show that by June 2009, over 135,000 borrowers were benefiting from forbearance offered by their lender, an increase of 74 per cent. on the previous year.