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The government was under fire last night for reneging on its promise to help people threatened with losing their home as Northern Rock admitted it would be responsible for one in 10 repossessions this year. At a hearing of the Treasury select committee, the new chief executive of Northern Rock, Gary Hoffman, admitted Northern Rock had taken possession of 4,201 homes by the end of September, up from 3,710 at the end of June.
But Hoffman, hired from Barclays on a £700,000 salary, rejected criticism that the bank was undermining government attempts to ease the strain on mortgage payers. A third of all the homes Northern Rock was repossessing were "voluntary", he said, referring to when homeowners hand back their keys to the lender without any attempt at renegotiation.
Hoffman said Northern Rock was working on an industry-wide solution for mortgage "forbearance" to help customers at risk of losing their homes through new "mortgage rescue packages".
He was speaking as the government began issuing guidance to courts to make lenders prove they have considered other options before repossessing homes. It is also preparing to announce details about shared equity schemes and sale-and-lease-back arrangements to keep people in their homes. The pre-budget report on Monday is also expected to bring forward, to January from April, changes for some people on benefits who can claim help with mortgage interest rate payments.
These measures are being prepared because data on Friday is expected to show a jump in the number of homes repossessed from 18,900 in the first half of the year towards the Council of Mortgage Lenders' estimate of 45,000.
Criticised for being too aggressive on repossessions, Hoffman insisted it was not the lenders' procedures but its controversial Together loans - essentially mortgages of 125% of the value of a property - that had caused the problems. While Together loans represent just under 30% of Northern Rock's mortgage book, they account for 50% of its arrears and about 75% of all repossessions.
Vincent Cable, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said his gripe was with the government, whose policy on repossessions he called "so pitifully weak".
Hoffman and Ron Sandler, Northern Rock chairman, insisted the bank was not taking a tough line on repossessions because it was racing to repay its loan from the taxpayer. They said repossessions generated just 1% of its income in the first nine months of the year.
Blame game
A journalist became part of the story yesterday when Robert Peston, BBC business editor, was linked to the collapse of Bradford & Bingley. Bank bosses told MPs that it had been nationalised at the end of September because savers had withdrawn more than £300m in three days. But Richard Pym, executive chairman, cited a blog posted by Peston on September 26, which raised the possibility of B&B being nationalised, as having a decisive role. "We saw [his] blog at 4.50 and realised that things weren't looking too good," said Pym.
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