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Mortgage rescue money that’s not been touched
£5m fund announced last year is yet to help any home-owners
AN emergency £5million mortgage rescue package set up by Islington Council six months ago has not helped one person so far, the Tribune can reveal.
The scheme – first promoted by Labour last December – was intended to top up government help by granting low-interest loans to borrowers facing the dole or short-time working.
Influential councillor Paul Convery said he was “shocked and staggered” that the scheme was not yet off the ground.
He said: “It’s now eight months since we agreed we would link to the national scheme.”
Cllr Convery conceded that unlike the last recession in the 90s banks and mortgage companies were more reluctant to repossess home and that there would be a “firestorm of fury” if they started to do so.
But he emphasised that as far as he knew the council had not even published claim forms for applicants and all that existed were the original council agenda documents referring to Labour’s proposals.
But finance chief John Gilbert said the Town Hall has hit a number of problems with the scheme.
He said: “The idea was to piggyback on the government’s scheme which had limits that were much too low to be any use to anybody in London.
“The property had to be worth less than a certain limit and that was set according to prices in Yorkshire not London.
“There were also income limits which didn’t work for London.
“We thought that rather than invent a new scheme we would piggyback the government’s scheme and increase the limits, but we needed authority from the people running the government’s scheme -– the Metropolitan Housing Association.
“But the Met have also had trouble with the government’s scheme and we have got caught up with those difficulties. “
He added: “It’s very frustrating. We’re hopeful we’ll get somewhere but it’s a slow process.”
Instead, Cllr Gilbert said the council has helped troubled homeowners by offering advice and negotiating with lenders.
He said one extra member of staff has been recruited to help deal with the caseload but that the £5m fund had not been used to pay for them. |
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