Government To Offer Assistance To Those With Mortgage Debts
The effects of the recent credit crunch are impacting on the housing market and particularly many individuals who have mortgage or secured loans on their homes. Latest figures show that repossessions of homes for the first quarter of this year have increased by 16% compared with the same period for last year.
The Government are also concerned for those borrowers who are coming to the end of their fixed rate loans this year and are likely to struggle with their new higher repayments. They have introduced plans costing £10m which are aimed at helping those people facing financial difficulties with their home loans.
The plans include additional free access to legal assistance within the County Court system along with additional staff and training within the National Housing Advice Service to provide a brand new debt advice service.
The Government are also encouraging lenders to provide better information, help and support for their customers in order that they may receive the assistance they need before it’s too late and repossession proceedings are commenced.
Although there has already been £50bn injected into the banking sector to ease their own problems and interest rates have been reduced on several occasions, with the likelihood of further reductions, those borrowers who are struggling with their home loans are not yet feeling the benefits of the changes and the Government are applying pressure on lenders to pass on these savings to their customers.
In the medium to long term, the housing market still looks extremely strong, but these measures have been introduced to help those borrowers who are in trouble now and to keep the number of repossessions to a minimum.
