Mortgages: Government Assistance

Grant Shapps
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 12 March 2009, Official Report, columns 746-7W, on mortgages: Government assistance, how many of the cases identified meeting the eligibility criteria for the Homeowners Mortgage Support Scheme have received assistance.

Margaret Beckett
The Homeowners Mortgage Support Scheme is expected to open in April with the first lenders. The scheme will help ensure hard working people who suffer a temporary loss of income can stay in their home. It enables households that experience a redundancy or significant loss of income to reduce their monthly payments to a more manageable level, by deferring a proportion of the interest payments on their mortgage for up to two years. Further detail, including the eligibility criteria is available at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/buyingselling/mortgagesupportscheme/