UK Mortgage Prisoners Campaign Group says it has been left with “no hope” to work on options for mortgage prisoners after a meeting with Treasury Minister Emma Reynolds.
While Labour supported the group’s marketing campaign in opposition, it says there aren’t any plans and no settlement to kind a Solutions Group.
After a 12 months in authorities, the group says it has solely seen “repetition of ineffective and inapplicable helps for the mainstream market which don’t assist mortgage prisoners”.
Prior to the election final 12 months, now Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticised the earlier Conservative authorities on their actions in direction of the difficulty, however the group fears “Labour intends to do likewise”.
It states: “The Labour Treasury is as deaf in authorities to the extreme and foreseen shopper hurt to the mortgage prisoner group because the earlier Conservative Ministers had been citing the difficulty as ‘too complicated’ whereas ignoring our proposals and the LSE Reports funded by Martin Lewis MSE.”
Shadow housing minister Kevin Hollinrake lately expressed remorse on the missed alternative to deliver aid to hundreds of mortgage prisoners in 2021 when Labour supported its trigger in opposition.
The group explains: “We marvel what’s within the Treasury closet that stops any minister in workplace from appearing within the face of the lack of houses and destruction of lives. Perhaps this can solely be clear when Lord Sharkey’s Mortgage Prisoners Public Inquiry Bill is supported within the House of Commons because it was within the Lords.”
UK Mortgage Prisoners Campaign Group lead campaigner Rachel Neale feedback: “We have sat with a number of Ministers in Treasury, each Conservative and now Labour, many occasions explaining the state of affairs on the bottom for our Members and the extreme detriment suffered by hundreds of trapped pre 2008 debtors from a time after they took on protected mortgages however had been offered down the river by their Government with out protections.”
“There should be a transfer from Labour who’ve acknowledged the hurt however frankly, don’t appear motivated to behave. In the meantime, we’re dealing with extraordinarily weak, extremely distressed folks dealing with dropping their houses and plenty of for whom it’s too late.”
“Thousands of Interest Only mortgages offered with out reimbursement autos previous to regulatory change are coming to the top of time period and these individuals are dropping their houses with inadequate fairness to search out wherever else to stay.”
“Repossessions within the Mortgage Prisoner group are disproportionate, and we have now been calling for efficient motion for years now with no Government ready to behave.”
Last 12 months, the UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group known as for the federal government to take “pressing motion” to guard mortgage prisoners and to “curb the tsunami of repossessions and compelled gross sales it’s seeing”.
Martin Lewis additionally renewed his name in July final 12 months for the federal government to step in and assist 200,000 mortgage prisoners who’re trapped on excessive charges.
In an open letter to chancellor Rachel Reeves, MoneySavingExpert.com’s founder Lewis urged her to take motion the place the earlier authorities failed to take action.
