CML news & views

Ministry of Justice data showed an increase in the first three months of this year in court actions – by both lenders and landlords – to possess property. On the same day, the government announced more funding for debt advice to help borrowers in difficulty, which we support. We are currently looking at other ways lenders can help. But we also urge the government to provide more help through better targeted income support for mortgage interest.

The government's draft legislative agenda contained a wide range of measures affecting lenders, including measures to make shared equity more widely available to first-time buyers. It now wants access to schemes to be based purely on income, rather than the occupation of the buyer. We welcomed the measures, which also included plans to give the Bank of England greater flexibility to respond to changing credit market conditions.

The Office of Fair Trading is to conduct a market study of sale-and-leaseback firms. We believe that, like lenders, these firms should be statutorily regulated by the Financial Services Authority because they are already targeting home-owners that are experiencing difficulty in repaying their mortgage. We hope the study will be completed by September, as promised, and acted upon promptly.

Monthly lending data is continuing to show the effects of the shortage of mortgage funding. Interbank lending rates have declined a little but remain high, and the full impact of the Bank of England’s special liquidity scheme will take some time to feed through to the mortgage market.