As part of the package of measures that was announced in the recent pre-budget report, homeowners who lost their jobs are set to get extra help from the government to ensure that they do not lose their homes. Previously, the government covered interest payments on mortgages for those that had been out of work for at least thirteen weeks and could not meet repayments. However, this was up to a maximum of a mortgage value of £100,000.

Under the new measures the government has announced that this has now been increased to a maximum mortgage value of £200,000, which means that a greater number of eligible homeowners will be able to enjoy this support from the government should the need arise. This was announced alongside various other measures designed to improve the struggling housing and mortgage markets, and there have been different responses from industry officials with regards to the effectiveness of these measures.

After the various measures were announced an official from the Council of Mortgage Lenders said: “Everything announced today is helpful, if modest.”

However, Jonathan Cornell of Hamptons International Mortgages said: “There was very little to help new mortgage lending and slow the fall in property prices. There were no decisive measures to push lenders to pass on cheaper rates.”

Another official, Melanie Bien, director of Savills Private Finance, said: “These are extremely difficult times for the housing and mortgage markets. The two main problems facing the chancellor are to urgently help those families in danger of having their homes repossessed and to reinvigorate the housing market.”

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