(2) how many households in (a) Test Valley borough and (b) Southampton have received assistance under the (i) Mortgage Rescue and (ii) Homeowners Mortgage Support scheme to date.
The £285 million Government Mortgage Rescue Scheme has been operational across the country since 1 January 2009. The Government do not allocate money directly to local authorities under the scheme. It is a demand-led scheme, with the number of vulnerable households benefiting in each local authority dependent on numbers of eligible applicants approaching their local authority for assistance.
As part of the monitoring arrangements for the scheme, headline data for January to May 2009, provided by local authorities and broken down by Government office region, are available on the Department’s website
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/mortgagerescuestatistics
Figures reported by local authorities from January to May 2009 are provided in a table, which has been placed in the Library.
The Homeowners Mortgage Support scheme provides enhanced support for homeowners who have fallen on difficult times by enabling them to reduce their mortgage interest payments to affordable levels. The Government do not allocate money directly to households under the scheme. There is no target or limit to the number of households who may be assisted under the scheme in any particular region or area. Official figures on numbers of households entering HMS will be published later this year.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Tamworth (Mr. Jenkins) on 24 June 2009, Official Report, column 961W.