TWICE as many families have lost their home in the recession than official figures suggest, the Tories claim.
Yesterday they challenged Labour assertions that repossessions are falling. The total is being deliberately underestimated, they said, by excluding “sale and rentbacks”.
This is when owners with mortgage arrears are forced to sell their home to a firm which then allows them to continue living in the house as tenants.
Tory housing spokesman Grant Shapps believes that if these forced sales were included then the number of people made homeless would be almost double. He said the official figures “fail to reflect their misery”.
Officially there were 48,000 repossessions in 2009, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
But Mr Shapps said: “Taking sale and rentback properties into account, it is likely that nearer 85,000 families have been compelled to hand their keys back.”
The Office for Fair Trading suggested 50,000 “sale and rentback” schemes took place up to October 2008, with many more last year.
No comments:
Post a Comment