§ 7. Mr. Newensasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will arrange for the central collection, under different headings designed to show the reason for the inability, of the numbers of former council house tenants who purchase council houses but are unable to meet mortgage repayments.
§ Mr. NewensIs it reasonable to conclude from that answer that, for political reasons, the Minister is anxious to conceal the number of former council tenants who are unable to maintain their mortgage repayments because of break-up of marriage, injury at work, unemployment, separation and other factors, and are faced with homelessness because the council cannot rehouse them? What advice does he give to councils that are faced with that problem?
§ Sir George YoungAs I think the hon. Gentleman knows, the Government are perfectly happy to make available the statistics that we have on the subject, but they are not available in the form for which he has asked. My hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Construction gave the figures in answer to a written question. On the basis of the evidence that is available, we are not satisfied that it is such a substantial problem that a completely new type of form should be introduced, both for building societies and for local authorities, to collect the type of information for which the hon. Gentleman has asked.
The advice must be that if people are suffering hardship they should be reminded that supplementary benefit is available to help with their interest payments and that they should talk to their lending authorities to see whether arrangements can be made to help them.
§ Mr. HeddleDoes my hon. Friend agree that some former council tenants who exercised their right to buy obtained their mortgage from the local authority? Is he aware that they may now meet some difficulty in making their repayments, because they are paying perhaps 2½ per cent. more in mortgage interest rates than they would if they transferred their mortgage to a building society? Will he confirm that his Department is doing all that it can to encourage local authorities to re-fund their mortgages with building societies?
§ Sir George YoungMy hon. Friend has done the public a service by reminding them that they can switch their mortgage from a local authority to a building society when there is a differential in the interest rates. The figures show that of 5½ million building society mortgages, only 3,660 were substantially in arrears at the end of 1981. That puts the problem more into perspective than did the emotive remarks of the hon. Member for Harlow (Mr. Newens).
§ Mr. Andrew F. BennettDoes the Minister agree that his answer was complacent? He mentioned the number of people who faced foreclosures, but there are many thousands more who are extremely worried about the problem. Does he agree that the Government have a special responsibility to those who have been caught by the two prongs of the Government's policy, by which they have been encouraged to buy council houses and then been affected by the Government's deliberate creation of unemployment?
§ Sir George YoungThe hon. Gentleman has left out a very important prong of the Government's policy, which is to bring down interest rates. The substantial fall in mortgage interest rates is of real benefit to those who are buying their homes.