CIRCUMSTANCES when “persons are marginalised and suffer resulting from institutional failures” were a cause for concern, the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, said within the House of Lords on 7 February, because “it is vital that they will not be forgotten and that the injustice is put right.”
The debate, for the second reading of the Mortgage Prisoners Inquiry Bill, and moved by Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat), raised the difficulty of borrowers “who’re stuck with their existing lenders and can’t access a greater deal reminiscent of a hard and fast rate”. As a result, their mortgage deals are punitive, the Lords heard.
“Mortgage prisoners deserve our attention. Many have suffered enormously already. Some are trapped in paying interest-only mortgages, and with little equity left of their homes,” Dr Francis-Dehqani said. “In most cases, families cannot easily move elsewhere after they have young children or strong ties to their localities. Many are unable to deal with the high interest payments, and at the moment are in arrears, which narrows their options even further. This situation is a consequence of the best way through which [the] Government sold the mortgages of collapsed lenders back into the private sector, in addition to the failure to take proper responsibility since then.”
She said that she supported the proposal “to establish a public inquiry to analyze the difficulty. . . Clearly, this can be a complex issue, but, if a public inquiry can result in decisive motion to set these mortgage prisoners free, it could draw a line under the scandal, which has been happening for much too long and amounts to a deep injustice.”
The Earl of Lytton made reference to a person he met who had “bought an investment flat in Chelmsford built by Barratt”, but couldn’t renew his mortgage, due to “cladding and compartmentation issues, and was thus caught up within the post-Grenfell constructing safety crisis”. The Bishop said that she was “for obvious reasons particularly sorry to listen to concerning the terrible case of the gentleman in Chelmsford”.
Responding for the Government, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Lord Livermore, clarified that “the overwhelming majority of the mortgages, under less stringent lending conditions prior to the financial crisis . . . were with Northern Rock or Bradford and Bingley, which were subsequently nationalised by the Government to guard financial stability.”
The Government was mindful, he said, of “the importance of delivering value for money to the taxpayer”, and that “given the amount of data already in the general public domain, we don’t imagine an extra inquiry would offer any significantly recent information or additional support to those affected”.
The Bill now moves to Committee Stage.
Comment, page 13
