---

Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants Etc.) Bill

Obviously, I am not familiar with the individual case, but we have made our view clear. In difficult times, a decent society would wish to be compassionate to people in difficult circumstances. I am therefore pleased that the Government's interventions and programmes have meant, for example—this is a factual point and not party political—that the number of repossessions is half the rate it was during the last recession. I note the interesting statistic that in 1992 quarter 1 homelessness due to mortgage arrears was running at 12 per cent., but in Q3 of 2009 it was 3 per cent. Intervention helps, and compassion is at the core of that. Unfortunately, the lender is often unable to help because they are reliant on the tenant making themselves known to them. For obvious reasons, that is not always possible and it can often happen too late in the process. In addition, unless the Bill is enacted, there is currently no official mechanism for tenants to engage with the court repossession process and no opportunity for the judge to take them into account when making a decision on repossession. The process of lender engagement in this issue tends to be ad hoc and certainly tenant experiences are not universal. Worried and vulnerable tenants need some clarity in the steps that they should take to prevent themselves from being made homeless at short notice. My hon. Friend's Bill would achieve that. I recognise some of the concerns raised by the lender sector about the Bill in response to the consultation document. While the need for tenants to have some opportunity to engage with the repossession process is key, it is recognised that some lenders feel the Bill to be complex and want to ensure that it is proportionate to the scale of the problem. That is a reassurance that my hon. Friend has been keen to give, and I can assure those stakeholders and the House that the Bill is indeed a proportionate response to the problem, given that it is clear that the various stages can be invoked only by an unauthorised tenant under threat of short-notice eviction as a result of landlord arrears and repossession. I would also argue that a Bill with only two substantive clauses is relatively simple. I understand that the secondary regulations also give further reassurances on processes that the tenant and lender will need to go through.