Edmonton MP Andy Love has welcomed the Government’s latest drive to tackle repossessions through free help and advice. Housing Minister John Healey wrote to Andy yesterday to highlight the targeted assistance that will be provided to Enfield, including a specialist helpline and website and a £2 million boost to the Council for a Preventing Repossessions Fund.
Enfield was selected as one of 30 areas where recent court figures are indicating a higher risk of repossession. They follow 56 hotspot areas previously targeted with Government support. In the third quarter of 2009, Ministry of Justice figures reveal that there were 155 possession claims leading to 120 possession orders – 77 percent – in Enfield.
In all the highlighted areas, from today, new adverts will appear in the local media encouraging struggling homeowners to visit the Government’s repossessions help website at
www.direct.gov.uk/mortgagehelp or call the National Debtline’s free advice number on 0808 808 4000.
In addition, the £2 million funding given to Enfield Council is designed to allow it to help struggling homeowners tackle their arrears and get back on top of their finances. Combined with the helpline and advice website, the money will go a long way to ensuring that repossessions are kept to a minimum and that they are always the very last resort.
Over the past year, already more than 330,000 households have had help and advice with their mortgages. Repossessions are now running at nearly half the rate of the early 1990s recession. But, with economic pressures on families likely to remain high throughout 2010, it is vital that the resources are made available so that thousands more households can receive help.
Welcoming the repossessions help, Andy said…
“I want homeowners who are struggling to know that there is valuable help out there. Even if you’ve received court papers, it doesn’t mean that you’re automatically going to lose your home. Getting advice, even at a late stage, can mean the difference between saving or losing your home. I’m urging everyone who needs it to seek help as soon as possible and to make use of the Government’s free website and advice line.”