“A really sensible move would be to enable the families to stay in their homes as tenants with the bank or building society becoming their landlord. In many cases a shared ownership arrangement could be appropriate. Either of these would be better than forcing families into homelessness, misery and hardship”

– Liberal Democrat Qurban Hussain.

According to figures released by the government on Thursday (12th November)145 Luton families have lost their homes through mortgage repossession in the last three months, 520 in the last 12 months. The published statistics also show the numbers of home repossessions per 1,000 households in local Council areas putting Luton at number 5 with 7.1 repossessions per 1,000 households. This is almost double the 3.6 figure for the whole of England and just behind Barking at 8.1, Newham 7.7, Thurrock 7.6 and Knowsley 7.5.

“Fortunately, the numbers do seem to be going down,” said Liberal Democrat Luton South Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Qurban Hussain. “But we need to remember that each and every case represents misery and hardship for the people involved and, in most cases, another homeless family for the Council to help.”

“The Housing Minister claims 11,000 families have benefitted from the Government Mortgage Rescue Scheme but almost all of these have been helped by their local authorities and, from figures unearthed by Liberal Democrat Shadow Housing Minister, Sarah Teather MP, up to June only 14 families have been rescued by central Government.”

“A really sensible move would be to enable the families to stay in their homes as tenants with the bank or building society becoming their landlord. In many cases a shared ownership arrangement could be appropriate. Either of these would be better than forcing families into homelessness, misery and hardship. If, as he says, the Housing Minister really does want repossession to be the last resort then government help to set up schemes like these would be far more beneficial than the empty words we’ve had so far.”