PRESS STATEMENT – PRESS STATEMENT – PRESS STATEMENT

SDLP South Antrim MLA Thomas Burns has backed innovative, unique new proposals for rescuing people who have fallen into mortgage arrears which were revealed in the Assembly this week by Housing Minister Margaret Ritchie.

The Minister presented her thinking to the Assembly on Monday and made a keynote speech to the Council of Mortgage Lenders' annual lunch in the Culloden Hotel on Tuesday.

She is highlighting two imaginative new initiatives. The first, Mortgage to Rent Scheme, will see Housing Associations buying properties on behalf of homeowners who simply cannot afford to make repayments. The Housing Association will then lease back the property to the current owners.

The second is known as 'Reverse Staircasing.' This is for people with a much smaller outstanding mortgage who have fallen on hard times. It would see a Housing Association buying out the outstanding mortgage and converting it as affordable rent, which the owner then pays to the Housing Association.

Both these schemes will allow families to remain in their homes. They are though, only designed for people in genuine hardship.

Thomas Burns said: “The credit crunch is affecting people in all walks of life in many different ways. Inflation is rising at an alarming rate and the price of everyday basics is going through the roof.

“This expenditure leaves less money available for people to pay for other things — in particular, their mortgages.

“The Minister should be congratulated for showing leadership on the issue through the creation of a taskforce to put in place the not-for-profit mortgage-rescue scheme – a scheme which is badly needed scheme and warmly welcomed.

“I am very concerned by the rising number of privately run mortgage-rescue schemes. Those companies target those with money problems and seek to make profit from a bad situation. They buy property at much less than the market value and offer short-term rental agreements. That is immoral. A not-for-profit scheme should help to reduce the number of such private companies. Similar schemes operate in Britain and we should have one here.”

ENDS

04.06.08