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Up to 60,000 families are at a high risk of repossession - double the number who had their homes repossessed last year - Liberal Democrat analysis of official figures has revealed.
The figures show that the families affected are spending over 75% of their disposal income each month on mortgage payments alone.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, Julia Goldsworthy said:
“There are 60,000 families teetering on the edge of losing their homes, weighed down by massive debts.
“As living costs rise, and the credit crunch starts to bite, families are forced to cut back on essentials in order to keep a roof over their heads.
“But Ministers are not prepared to deal with the housing crash as the safety nets have been withdrawn. There are almost a million fewer social homes to rent than during the last recession while the number of families waiting for housing has skyrocketed.
“This Government has buried its head in the sand, and it is overstretched families who are paying the price.
“Ministers must act decisively and commit resources to a national network of financial advice centres, with face-to-face services that are free at the point of use.
“The Government should also work with the banks to ensure that as many families as possible can stay in their homes, either through payment holidays or part ownership schemes.”
7 comments:
Surely the extortionate levels of Council Tax cannot be helping the situation? But the big question to you is - How would Local Income Tax be any different to those struggling to pay for mortgages?
LIT wouldn't help directly, but it would reduce the burden on those with low incomes just starting out on making a home for themselves.
There are other measures in the LibDem programme, such as part-ownership, which tackle the mortgage problem more directly.
The secret would be to get away from the Boom and Bust cycle of the Housing Market; with mortgage providers offering 100-120% mortgages on Five plus times peoples salaries is a recipe for disaster.
In addition to high levels of Council Tax (4 out of the 5 highest taxing councils in Wales are labour run); we should also consider Fuel Poverty, Brent Crude is now $111 per barrel, gas and electric will be going up, ditto the price of food will also go up in our supermarkets. I'm sure that this will have a knock on effect in the housing market, the share price on housebuilders is also showing marked decreases.
I'm sure oil being at $111 per barrel has absolutely nothing to do with the war going on in the middle east; courtesy or Messrs Bush and Blair.
G. Lewis
Bridgend Lib Dems
$120 per barrel is not out of the question, according to a pundit on World Service this morning.
It's more to do with demand than supply, though. China is a big importer of oil, and the desire of Americans to guzzle gasoline seems undiminished by the mortgage meltdown.
- Frank H Little
Judging by this evening’s news, more grey clouds on the horizon for Brown. The spectre of negative equity has been resurrected from the 1990's; this comes in the wake of Angela Smith, parliamentary private secretary (PPS) resignation over the scrapping of the 10 pence tax rate.
What does it say about Labour that a bag-carrier for a Treasury minister has only just realised the impact of the 2007 budget?
However, the latest news is that Downing Street says that Angela Smith hasn't resigned really. An arm must have been twisted.
FHL
This makes my blood boil. Why are the Government not acting now. In fact, why did they not act several months ago. Instead they rely on the good work of charities like Shelter to pick up the pieces.
They gave money away to the mortgage lenders (was it £40m?). Yet despite this huge cash injection (and lets face it, what other struggling business sector ever gets that amount of money) these lenders were not asked to lower their interest rates, or at the very least keep them static.
Therefore what benefit have tax payers seen for this spend?
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