PM accused of raising hopes over mortgages
March 12, 2009
In a recent attack the Conservative Party has accused the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, of raising the hopes of consumers with regards to mortgage assistance.
The accusation comes following a scheme that the Labour government promised would be put into place to help struggling homeowners who were finding it hard to meet repayments on their mortgages.
The Homeowners Support Scheme was announced by Gordon Brown last year, and he said at that time that the scheme would be made available from early this year to try and assist those struggling with mortgage repayments. However, due to further negotiations with lenders with regards to how the scheme will work the launch has now been postponed until April. The Tory Party is now saying that something must have gone horribly wrong.
Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, stated: “It looks to me like an attempt to grab the headlines by the prime minister rather than actually deal with the problems.”
He added that it was “completely wrong for the government to announce a scheme where the details haven’t been worked out and where months later people’s expectations will have been dashed because actually they are still losing their homes rather than the scheme being in place.”
Nick Clegg from the Liberal Democrats said: “The much-publicised Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme announced last year has not yet helped a single family in trouble. The prime minister’s wasteful complacency means that millions of extra families could be added to already full social housing lists.”
The Council of Mortgage Lenders said that there was still ongoing discussion between the government and lenders, adding: “When there is a gap between an announced policy measure and its implementation, inevitably people wonder what’s happening and try to find out about that.”
- Speculation over mortgage support scheme rises According to a recent report there is rising speculation over a proposed government mortgage support scheme, with uncertainty over which lenders are prepared to support the scheme and when the scheme will actually go ahead.
- Personal loan rate cuts from Barclays Over recent weeks a number of high street lenders have hiked up the interest rates on their unsecured personal loans, some by a whopping 4%, which has made borrowing far more expensive for consumers looking
- Sharp rise in mortgage fees According to a recent report there has been a sharp rise in the cost of mortgage related fees over the past year, making affordability for potential buyers even more difficult. The rocketing fees are likely
- Consumers could be hit by rising mortgage rates from lenders Since August 2006 the base interest rate has risen five times in the UK, taking it from 4.5% to 5.75% in just under one year. Since July of this year struggling homeowners have been relieved
- Borrowers accused of late mortgage payments by Northern Rock Thousands of mortgage payers have been falsely accused of failing to pay their mortgage on time by ailing high street bank Northern Rock. The Rock, which recently became the victim of the first run on
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