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Housing and the Credit Crunch

The right hon. Gentleman has in the past 10 or 15 years, but not in the past three months. If he had been in any of the debates in which I have spoken, he would have heard me give credit to the Government for making significant advances, particularly on income support for mortgage interest, which I have welcomed regularly and which have helped many people. My point is not to say that the Government have done nothing. My point is that they must think long term. I have not criticised them for everything that they have done, and I am trying to make a constructive contribution to the debate, which, so far, has involved an enormous number of straw men being knocked down. The right hon. Gentleman need not knock down another straw man now. I have welcomed the contributions to ISMI. What I have also said is that some of the Government's policies have been very tightly drawn, which has meant that a lot of people have fallen through the net. That is why I have consistently argued for mortgage law reform. The report picked up a point about the pre-action protocol and said that the Select Committee was concerned that it lacked teeth. I have consistently pushed the Government on the issue of mortgage law reform, and I hope that the Minister will consider the issue favourably. The hon. Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe spoke about the difficulties that tenants find themselves in. The Committee Chair, the hon. Member for Milton Keynes, South-West (Dr. Starkey), also spoke about the issue. I know that the Ministry of Justice is considering the matter at the moment. I argued in the previous debate that we had in Westminster Hall with this Minister that I hoped that mortgage law reform could be used to give courts the power to intervene. Guidance could then be issued. We would not necessarily need primary legislation to enforce a longer notice period for tenants who find themselves in difficulty because their landlord has got into arrears on their mortgage. I hope that the Government will look on that favourably and take action soon, because we are about to go into recess. Although the Ministry of Justice is looking at the matter, we do not have any time scale on when such a measure will be brought in. Which law are the Government hoping to amend? Will it happen through secondary or primary legislation? Will that be in the next Queen's Speech? How long will it take, because enormous numbers of people will find themselves in difficulty and may fall through the net? Finally, I want to pick up on a matter that was in the report and that I asked the Minister about in our previous debate. He said then that he did not know the answer, so I hope that his civil servants have briefed him ahead of this debate. I am talking about the issue of sale and rent back. The Government have consistently said that they want the OFT to regulate that area. However, I am still seeing notices on lamp posts across London saying, "We can buy your house and you can rent it back. We can get you out of difficulty if you are in debt." Given that the mortgage rescue scheme is predicted to rescue only 6,000 people, there will be many who get themselves into arrears, take part in those schemes and lose their homes some 12 months later. When will the Government regulate that kind of sale-and-rentback scheme? The Committee said that the matter was urgent in February when the report was published and the Government have been promising such regulation for several years, so I hope that the Minister answers that question.