§ Mr. Bradleyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he intends to take in view of the fact that certain building societies have provided the Leicester City Council with a map indicating zones where they are not prepared to lend to mortgage applicants nominated by the council.
§ Mr. FreesonI understand that in the early days of working out arrangements in Leicester under the £100 million scheme an indication was given of areas in which societies were reluctant to lend; since then the Leicester City Council has published its renewal strategy, and the building societies are to re-examine their approach in the light of this. More generally, the discussions between the Building Societies Association and the local authority associations have led to greater recognition of the problems and of the need for greater flexibility in overcoming them. I hope, therefore, that the present co-operation will avoid the rigid approach to particular areas which my hon. Friend describes even though some properties will remain unacceptable as security. Moreover, following the societies' agreement to make up as far as possible the recently announced356W reductions in local authority home loans, discussions are being held urgently with building society leaders about the best ways of helping.
§ Mr. Bradleyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the total number of nominations made by the Leicester City Council to the building societies for mortgages since the inception of the £100 million scheme: and how many have been accepted.
§ Mr. FreesonOut of a total of 180 nominations made by the council, 41 have not been followed up by the applicants, 45 have firm offers by the building societies of which one has been refused by the applicant, 37 have been rejected. The remaining 57 cases are still under consideration by the building societies.