No North West families benefiting from Mortgage Rescue Scheme figures show

5.28.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 29th Jul 2009

Not a single household in the North West has received help through the government's Mortgage Rescue Scheme, figures uncovered by Withington MP, John Leech, show.

The scheme was set up in January to help people most at risk from repossession, yet as these figures show, just 6 families have been helped nationwide - despite over 5,300 households approaching local authorities with mortgage difficulties.

The statistics show that since January:

· Just 6 out of 5,342 households that have approached their local authorities with mortgage difficulties have accepted offers of help through the scheme.

· In the North West not a single family has benefited from the scheme despite 130 applying for help.

· In Manchester 37 households have applied for help but there are no recorded offers of help.

John Leech said:

"There was much fanfare when the government implemented the Mortgage Rescue Scheme, but it's clear from these figures that claims that it would help people struggling with their mortgages were nothing more than an illusion."

"The government's own figures said that 6,000 households were expected to benefit from the scheme over two years at a cost of some £200m but given that just 6 have benefited in 6 months they are falling unbelievably short of that target."

"Unfortunately, if you live in the North West and your house is worth more than £125,000 you're not eligible for help so it's not surprising the scheme's helping so few people. The government should be taking action to reform mortgage law to ensure that courts have the power to reduce repossessions instead of wasting time coming up with vacuous headline-grabbing schemes."

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Notes to editors:

The Mortgage Rescue Scheme "has been operational across the country since January 2009, aiming to prevent some of the most vulnerable families losing their homes and experiencing the trauma of repossession. The Mortgage Rescue package has two elements: (1) the 'Government Mortgage to Rent' option which involves an RSL purchasing the homeowner's property, enabling the household to remain in the property as a tenant on an assured short hold tenancy, paying an intermediate rent; and (2) the 'Shared Equity' option which involves a RSL providing a loan to the homeowner to enable the homeowner's monthly mortgage payments to be reduced." (footnote 1, http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/repossessions/livetablesrepossession/ (Table 1303)

The figures are based on information provided by local authorities to the Department of Communities and Local Government and are available at http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/repossessions/livetablesrepossession/ (Table 1303)

The impact assessment costs of implementation are available from the Impact Assessment Library at http://www.ialibrary.berr.gov.uk/ImpactAssessment/detail.cfm?IAID=40403471af7d48479d33e826aca4960e