Housing charity Shelter is calling on the Government and mortgage lenders to fund a rescue package to help homeowners facing repossession. Shelter claims repossessions are 20% higher than the official CML (Council for Mortgage Lenders) suggest.

The Treasury is due to meet with the CML tomorrow (22nd April) to discuss the housing crisis and the number of repossessions hitting homeowners. Shelter is demanding that the talks are about solving the crisis now and not about ‘passing the buck’ between Government and lenders.

“The Government bailed out Northern Rock, and now they and mortgage lenders must stop passing the buck between each other and take responsibility to help hard-pressed families in genuine need,” comments Adam Sampson, Shelter Chief Executive. “The Government has made billions of pounds from Stamp Duty and the lenders billions from mortgages. It’s now time to plough some of this money into helping save people from repossession.”

As well as a national mortgage rescue scheme for people facing repossession, Shelter would like the time people have to wait for State help reduced from nine to three months. It is also requesting additional financial support for arrears and repossession help and advice phone lines. In addition it says measures need to be taken to ensure second and third charge lending is regulated by the Financial Service Authority (FSA) and that more powers are given to courts to insist lenders only repossess as the very last resort.

According to Shelter, the CML estimates that 45,000 homeowners will be repossessed this year. Its calculations are based on people losing their homes after defaulting on ordinary first charge mortgages. Shelter’s calculations however are based on repossessions involving second and third charges. In other words loans secured against a property on top of the original mortgage.