Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
UK banks have agreed to give mortgage holders a 12-month grace period before their homes are repossessed should they fall behind with their repayments. Homeowners will also be able to switch to interest-only for six months or temporarily lengthen mortgage terms for the same period without affecting credit ratings in new measures announced by Jeremy…
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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published new figures revealing that median monthly rents in England have reached £825, the highest figures since records began. The average monthly median rent in London is now £1,500. Debt charity StepChange says rising rents across the country will have a significant impact on the ability of tenants to keep up with their…
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New polling from StepChange Debt Charity has revealed 45% of mortgage holders, equivalent to 6.9m UK adults, have found it difficult to keep up with bills and credit commitments in the last few months. The new figures, which come as the Bank of England is expected to again raise interest rates today, show that two…
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Global credit intelligence company, Pepper Advantage has published data on its portfolio of over 100,000 UK residential mortgages, which shows a material rise in borrower arrears. In the year to April 2023, Pepper Advantage saw an increase of 11% in the percentage of residential mortgages in arrears, the highest growth rate since the global Financial…
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New research by Zoopla has found that the average rent has increased by 10.4% in a year, the 5th month of double-digit growth. 53% of tenants say their rent has risen in the past six months with renters spending 28% of their income putting a roof over their head – the highest in ten years. The…
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Citizens Advice is warning that banning Section 21 evictions will only improve renters rights if forthcoming legislation prevents backdoor ‘no fault’ evictions from taking place. The charity helped almost 2,000 people with Section 21 issues in May, the most in a single month on record and a 25% increase since May 2022. To date, 2023…
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New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) have shown that second charge mortgage new business volumes fell by 22% in April 2023 Commenting on the latest new business figures for the second charge mortgage market, Fiona Hoyle, Director of Consumer & Mortgage Finance and Inclusion at the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA),…
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The North East was England’s most affordable region to privately rent last year, Paragon Bank analysis has revealed. In the North East of England, earnings averaged £30,078 in 2022. A rental affordability ratio of 23.5% is derived by dividing this by £7,054, the average annual cost to privately rent a home in the region. This…
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New research by TotallyMoney has predicted the impact of the Bank of England’s hiking interest rates by a further 0.25% (to 4.75%) on borrowers with a variable rate mortgage head of the next MPC announcement on the 22nd of June. The research found that for the average UK property costing £270,708 with a 75% LTV,…
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Latest research from Hargreaves Lansdown has found that one in five say their monthly mortgage payments have already risen more than £200 in the past 18 months. Two in five people with a mortgage say their payments haven’t gone up since interest rates started rising – because so many are on fixed rate deals with…
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Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for May 2023 Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1,839.7 billion at the end of March 2023. The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,513 and per adult was £34,589, around 105.3% of average earnings. Net mortgage lending shrunk by…
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Latest UK Finance data has reported a 50% increase in home repossessions in Quarter 1 (Q1) 2023, with over 1,000 homes taken into repossession due to homeowners struggling to keep up with mortgage repayments. In addition to the 750 mortgaged properties repossessed, 50 per cent greater than in the previous quarter. 410 buy-to-let mortgaged properties…
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A new report from StepChange Debt Charity has revealed that the private rental market is unable to meet the needs of financially vulnerable tenants, with one in six private renters (1.2m people) relying on credit to make ends meet. The charity welcomed last week’s Renters (Reform) Bill, but says it does not go far enough…
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