Downing Street Says » Repossessions

» Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Repossessions

Asked for more detail on the repossessions announcement, the PMS replied that there was a very good press notice put out by the Treasury earlier today. Essentially this was about making the guidance to courts more explicit, that courts should only consider repossessions as a last resort.

Asked that given we owned Northern Rock who were seen as the worst offenders in this regard, was there any thoughts of telling Northern Rock directly, the PMS replied that as we had always made clear, Northern Rock was run as an arms-length institution. This was about guidance to the courts that would apply to all mortgage lenders.

Asked if we would expect the Scottish Government to follow our lead, the PMS replied that he would have to check what the exact position was in relation to this particular measure and how it applied in Scotland.

Asked if there was an estimate for how many repossessions might be avoided as a result, the PMS replied that this should probably be checked with the Treasury.

Put that we had made quite a big issue of saying that we hoped the partially nationalised banks would achieve some sort of social objectives, and asked why we could not tell Northern Rock how to behave when it came to repossessions but we could tell other banks how behave, the PMS replied that these were decisions taken at the time in relation to Northern Rock. Obviously there were issues relating to state aids as well with Northern Rock, and we had already been through the European Commission s state aids process.

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