Oldham builds refuge from housing crisis
Reporter: Janice Barker
Date published: 24 October 2008
OLDHAM’S biggest landlord is bracing itself for a rush of people needing homes after repossessions this winter.
First Choice Homes is calling on the Government to let it take action in the housing market as repossessions rise.
A report by FCHO, which manages 12,500 council houses, says Oldham is one of the hotspots where people have taken out big mortgages compared with the value of their home, and are liable to encounter difficulties.
Illness and job loss are likely to be the tipping point, particularly if fuel bills soar again this winter, it says, and some lenders are rushing to court to get repossession without letting a family take advice.
Mortgage repossessions claims at Oldham County Court in the first half of this year were up by a third, and 600 of the 820 were granted.
Council housing is shrinking. Oldham lost 2,000 council homes through right-to-buy after 2001, and tenants move less often.
FCHO’s Housing Options service is also coming across cases of private landlords failing to pay mortgages and having properties repossessed, leaving their tenants homeless.
Families may know nothing until the bailiffs arrive. Some are victims of sale and rent-back schemes, where people in mortgage arrears sell to a landlord, and become his tenants.
If he fails to pay his mortgage, the house is repossessed and they are out.
In the first three months of this year, almost 50 households lost their home through landlord repossession even though they had consistently paid their rent.
The report says: “One family returned from holiday to their rented home to find that the bailiff had changed the locks and they had been made homeless.”
Speculative building has also halted. Phil Wiggett of Wiggett Construction said: “The situation is serious and the problem is confidence.
“People can’t buy when two thirds of all mortgage applications are being refused.”
FCHO chief executive Hugh Broadbent said: “The concern is that this is almost certain to be the calm before the storm.
“Numbers seeking advice for repossession have climbed steadily. September’s figure was more than double that for April.”
He said Oldham was trying to help with a bond scheme, where the council puts up the money for a bond for a private tenant.
It is also bidding for grants to build 80 houses.
Mr Broadbent says there are 2,500 usable private homes standing empty in Oldham. He wants FCHO to be the bridge between them.
He says that as short-notice evictions become a bigger problem, the Government needs to allow organisations to intervene quickly, responsively and flexibly using local knowledge.
The report, “The View Downstream,” has been sent to Oldham’s three MPs who will meet Mr Broadbent, North-West Housing Minister Ian Wright, and the Government Office North-West.
