Mortgages: Government Assistance

Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 8 May 2009.

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Photo of Grant Shapps Grant Shapps Shadow Minister (Communities and Local Government) (Housing and Planning), Co-Chair, Conservative Party

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many households in each local authority area have received assistance under the Mortgage Rescue scheme in each of the last six months.

Photo of Margaret Beckett Margaret Beckett Minister of State (Department of Communities and Local Government) (Housing)

The Government Mortgage Rescue scheme has only been operational across the country since 1 January 2009, following successful 'fast tracking' by 80 local authorities in December 2008. The scheme is one part of a comprehensive package of measures to help households at risk of repossession.

Based on the January-March 2009 monitoring returns, 452 households had applied for and were being actively considered for Mortgage Rescue assistance during this period, of which 57 cases were in the final stage of the process (referral to the Registered Social Landlord) as at the end of March. It can take between three and four months for a household to complete the process from the time they approach a local authority because it is similar to that of selling a property, involving procedures such as property valuation and negotiations between the parties involved. As at the end of March, one household in the Government Office East region had completed the process, whereby a housing association had agreed to purchase their property and enable the household to remain in their own home as tenants.

Headline data from the first monitoring returns submitted by local authorities implementing the scheme were published on the CLG website on 30 April 2009:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/repossessions/

The published tables, broken down by Government Office Region, comprise a consolidated return for January and February 2009, and a separate table for March 2009.

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