Struggling home owners feeling the impact of the credit crunch could soon be getting a helping hand after council officials announced plans to introduce a mortgage rescue scheme.
Shropshire County Council has published the objective in its draft Shropshire Homelessness Action Plan, which is being looked at by councillors across the county.
The aim includes plans to evaluate a scheme which is currently being run in Herefordshire to see if it could be applied to the county including homes in Shrewsbury.
Shirehall officials will also be talking to registered social landlords who would administer the scheme if it went ahead, and detailed discussions are set to begin next summer.
Graham Biggs, the responsible officer for the report, said that Shropshire County Council would be following the government’s new housing market rescue package closely to see if the money set aside is enough.
Mr Biggs said the scheme would have three options for home owners facing the possibility of homelessness due to financial problems.
Options
“The first option is shared equity where a registered social landlord would provide an equity loan repayable when the property is sold,” he said.
“This would be suitable only for those with a short-term problem.
“The second measure is shared ownership when a housing association buys a share in a home and the owner gets to stay in occupation and pay rent on the part they don’t own.
‘They can sell their share on when they want to move,” he added.
“Sell and rent back is the final option where a housing association acquires the property but rents it back to the owner.”
If there is a government funding shortfall the council report sets out aims to explore funding options and if necessary bid for money to run a scheme.
Mr Biggs said: “We wanted to explore the relevance of the scheme, but we haven’t got much further than that at this stage.
“We want to have a look at the government scheme which is for £200 million and which will take effect by the end of the financial year.
“We want to see the extent of the problem and the way in which the government scheme works and if the money is big enough for the job.
“We would first use government money before using local authority money.”
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