ROOF Blog

Two financial advisers have been recruited by the Chartered Institute of Housing to help housing associations support tenants through financial difficulties. The positions are being funded by Barclays and the Financial Services Authority, and are expected to work with local councils and housing organisations to help tenants gain greater control over their finances

The Liberal Democrats have found more than 3,300 tenants in England are paying their rent using credit cards each month, paying just 40 councils. A Lib-Dem spokesperson said he was concerned that few councils have policies in place to help those who are struggling with rent because they are ‘routinely paying rent with a credit card’. ROOF recently found that more than one million people used a credit card to help meet housing need.

The government is proposing wide-ranging new powers to allow bailiffs to break into people’s homes and use ‘reasonable force’ against householders who try to protect their valuables. The government wants to crack down on people who evade debts, and under the new regulations, bailiffs working for private firms would be able to restrain or pin down householders and force their way into homes to seize property to pay off debts.

Home ownership, or the belief that it is the only ‘done thing’ to own your own home, ignores the reality that many people can’t afford to buy a home and has pushed millions into unnecessary debt according to the Residential Landlords Association (RLA). The housing market would be better served by increasing the number of properties for rent, and the housing market and construction industry would be better served by the government encouraging private sector landlords, instead of making life ‘so difficult for them’, RLA argues.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is offering the public free financial advice from every branch from tomorrow. Around 1,000 customer service staff at the bank have been trained by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service to offer impartial help on areas such as budgeting skills and how basic financial products work. They will not be allowed to sell products. The bank said the offer is open to anyone – whether they bank at RBS or not, or even if they do not have a bank account at all.

Alistair Darling announced details of the pre-budget report yesterday. Besides increasing pension credit, income support and jobseeker’s allowance, a number of measures were specified to help homeowners. The recently announced £200 million mortgage rescue scheme where the government buys a home and then rents it back to the former owners, which will help up to 6,000 vulnerable households and is available from January, is to be extended to include those with second charge mortgages also. He also announced an extension of the income support for mortgage interest scheme (ISMI) which helps homeowners pay interest payments on their mortgages if they become unemployed, which would be paid on the interest to loans of up to £200,000 now. A ‘lender panel’ is to be created that would monitor how mortgage companies lend to both individuals and businesses. The chancellor also said that mortgage lenders need to develop ‘creative and sustainable’ solutions to help borrowers stay in their homes such as mortgage holidays or reduced payments, and has told lenders to wait three months before taking action against borrowers unable to make their monthly repayments. Free debt advice to the value of £15 million will be provided, and £775 million of funding for a promised boost social housing will be fast-tracked from the 2010/11 spending review. By 2010 empty properties with a ratable value below £15,000 will be exempt from business rates, which the chancellor estimates could exempt as much as 70 per cent of empty buildings.