Press Releases
Press Release – 29th March 2024
UK Mortgage Prisoner Action Group is extremely disappointed and angry to have received the latest response from Bim Afolami, Economic Secretary to Treasury.
After cautious optimism following our meeting on 29th January and an ask by Treasury for a four week response time to respond to the various matters raised in the meeting and to our Mortgage Reform Policy, we see that Mr Afolami is towing the line of his predecessors and that this Government has absolutely no ideas, no solutions and nothing to offer to either right past wrongs or bring any resolution to the current desperation suffered by Mortgage Prisoners. Mr Afolami has kept us waiting double the time he asked, and the result is the status quo.
Press Release - 12th March 2024, Positive first stage to end the Mortgage Prisoner Cycle
UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group are looking forward to continued communication with Martin Docherty-Hughes MP as his Private Members Bill aimed at bringing relief to UK Mortgage Prisoners progresses to the next stage on 14th June.
It is a travesty that Government have failed to act with any measures since the introduction of the very limited modified affordability in 2019 which helped so very few. Government has not lived up to promises made that the Mortgage Prisoner issue is a priority.
Press Release, 22nd January 2024 - UK Mortgage Prisoners call for Immediate Mortgage Reform
The UK Mortgage Prisoner Action Group calls for urgent and sweeping legislative reforms to mortgages to avert further homeowner crises and go some way to righting the current wrongs.
Mortgage Prisoners – trapped on predatory reversionary standard variable rates (SVRs) since Treasury rescued banks such as Northern Rock in 2008 – have experienced devastating injustice that has led to financial ruin, mental anguish, and homelessness and loss of life.
Press Release 14th November 2023 - Cooperative Bank have misled, and overcharged their customers.
UK Mortgage Prisoners Campaign Group join with APPG Mortgage Prisoners in relation to the call for a review into the actions of the FCA and FOS regarding the issues leading to the recent MAS5 FOS Decision.
FOS have upheld our member's complaint about unfair treatment of customers and breach of contract by MAS5, part of the Co-operative Banking Group in the setting of it's SVR.
This affects 1000s ofMortgage Prisoners held by MAS5.
While the pain of rate rises is being felt across the mortgage market with rises in fixed rate products, there is a total lack of awareness among politicians, and general public of the issues faced by UK Mortgage Prisoners.
Government sold our mortgages to non lending asset administrators, some being trading arms of active Lenders. These entities are only interested in profiteering and asset acquisition, the assets in this case being 195000 homes.
A 13th consecutive base rate rise will see UK Mortgage Prisoner interest rates reach an average over 9% with many paying higher at 10.45% and above before this rise.
Rises for many borrowers with high street Lenders coming off low fixed rates to around 5.75-6% mean many will struggle. However, UK Mortgage Prisoners have been trapped on rates around 5% for over a decade without being able to access the historic lows the majority of other borrowers were able to benefit from. Mortgage Prisoners have suffered prolonged financial detriment on the rates other borrowers are now fearing.
Press Release – 11th May 2023 Another rise today will be the final nail for many UK Mortgage Prisoners
This 12th consecutive base rate rise will see UK Mortgage Prisoner interest rates reach an average 8.64% with many paying higher.
Our calls to meet with Andrew Griffith, Economic Secretary to Treasury continue to fall on deaf ears while homes are lost, and the mental health of our members deteriorates. Government is unconcerned with the reality of life for UK Mortgage Prisoners and blindly repeats outdated responses which no longer are in place or are not working.
Press Release 23rd March 2023 - UK Mortgage Prisoners devastated by 11th rate rise.
UK Mortgage Prisoners are devastated by yet another rate rise, all of which have been passed on to them by the entities servicing their mortgages.
These "non lenders" which the Government sold our mortgages to after the bank collapses 15 years ago, offer no fixed rates and when base rates were so low for a decade, they did not lower their rates with each base rate fall but now raise them with each base rate rise. From a starting point of around 5% average our members average a crippling 8.14% before today's rise is passed on.
UK Mortgage Prisoners Group thank Martin Lewis for funding the third, and final LSE report on Mortgage Prisoner solutions.
We welcome the fact that LSE have considered a broader definition of "mortgage prisoner" than the restrictive and unrealistic one in the 2021 FCA Review. This recognises the almost 200,000 mortgage prisoners in closed books rather than the 47,000 the FCA and Government speak of. Mortgage prisoners and their families have suffered at the hands of a government decision they had no choice in which has led to 14 years of unfair financial treatment causing immeasurable detriment, seriously impacting financial wellbeing as well as mental and physical health.
UK Mortgage Prisoners Group cannot overstate the disastrous impact of a 10th base rate rise on their members who are suffering intolerable stress in the face of unaffordable high payments charged by profiteering vulture funds.
Government response to the mortgage prisoner issue is consistently disappointing and always references a flawed FCA Review which is over a year old.
Despite promises, the Government has done nothing whatsoever since to help Mortgage Prisoners and the ongoing impact of base rate rises has meant that modified affordability rate switches have largely disappeared. There appears to be a continuing lack of any will from Government over the past 14 years to deal with the mortgage prisoner issue and absolutely no measures put in place to assist this most vulnerable community of borrowers during the current cost of living crisis.
Press Release - 8th December 2022, Mortgage Summit during cost of living crisis.
Uk Mortgage Prisoners Group will always welcome discussion around help for those struggling with their mortgages in the current climate.
We were expectant that the summit at Downing Street would bring discussion around new policy such as capping svr base rate margins. There is nothing new in the measures discussed that was not already in the armoury of the banks and within the current regulatory framework and once again mortgage prisoners have been left out in the cold with no measures which will help in their circumstances.
UK Mortgage Prisoners are running short of words in the face of consecutive rate rises. We, of course, never had the benefit of the decade of historic lows and were held on margins of around 4.15% above base.
This rise, if passed on as previously, increases our members average mortgage rate to 7.14%, many are above that. We cannot emphasise enough the detriment these rates have caused mortgage prisoners. FCA and Government are not grasping the urgency of the need for solutions and intervention.
The current cost-of-living crisis is having a crippling impact on many families and households. However even more than this there is no help being offered to those trapped on their administrator’s standard variable rates.
Mortgage Prisoners who have already suffered more than a decade on crippling variable rates before the now seven consecutive interest rate rises are disproportionately affected. We are on a solid back foot and have been trapped paying these higher unfair rates for well over a decade since the last Global Financial Crisis.
Press Release, 4th August 2022 - Sixth rise in base rate since December 2021
The rise in base rates announced today, the 6th since December 2021, no longer comes as a surprise. What is surprising is the lack of any action or intervention by Government and Regulator to prevent these rises being automatically passed on to historic mortgage accounts and existing loans particularly in light of the current cost of living crisis.
Press Release - MAS 5 lose judicial review in High Court Judgement, 28th July 2022
Today UK Mortgage Prisoners again feel that the unfairness of our situation for the last decade is finally being recognised in the latest judgement against the CO OP bank.
MAS No 5, an arm of the CO OP, have lost the Judicial Review challenging the Financial Ombudsman’s Decision of 26th August 2021 in relation to Mrs D (one of our member's whose case we have been supporting) in her general Complaint about interest rates charged by MAS since she was placed on their reversionary rate.
Read the full judgement here
Today’s announcement of a further 0.25% interest rate rise brings more misery and despair for mortgage prisoners who are trapped on already high interest rates. These borrowers continue to pay over inflated rates to non lending companies who hold their mortgages post financial crash which as a consequence results in often the most vulnerable in society paying the highest rates for their mortgages to profit investors.
Press Release on Bank of England’s Further Increase in Interest Rates, 17th March, 2022
Today’s announcement by the Bank of England that interest rates are again rising for the third time in as many months, is another bleak day for UK Mortgage Prisoners and those held on already high Standard Variable Rates.
Press Release on Bank of England’s Increase in Interest Rates, 3rd Feb, 2022
Today’s announcement of yet another increase to the base rate of interest from the Bank Of England only a month after the previous rate rise will have a significant impact on the lives of UK Mortgage Prisoners and those currently stuck paying the Standard Variable Rate (SVR) on their mortgages. The last increase was passed on immediately by the majority of mortgage administrators resulting in increased monthly mortgage payments.
Press Release on Bank of England’s Increase in Interest Rates, 16th Nov, 2021
Today’s announcement by the Bank of England to increase the base rate of interest from 0.1% to 0.25% will cause further misery for mortgage prisoners trapped paying standard variable rates (SVRs) should their mortgage provider decide to pass the increase on. We know any change to a mortgage provider’s SVR remains a commercial decision for them to make but we want to ensure they know this increase announced today does not need to be passed on to their customers.
Press Release on FCA Mortgage Prisoner Review Results, 29th Nov, 2021
UK Mortgage Prisoners are extremely disappointed although hardly surprised that, having waited 8 months for the FCA Mortgage Prisoner Review, presented in Parliament by Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen MP, yesterday, it is nothing more than smoke and mirrors spun in such a way to divert attention away from the true harm and detriment being caused to potentially millions of mortgage holders across the UK.
Press Release on FCA Mortgage Prisoner Review - Stakeholder Meeting
UK Mortgage Prisoners were very pleased to be invited as key stakeholders to a meeting with the FCA to give our thoughts on their upcoming Mortgage Prisoner Review: Terms of Reference.
We outlined that the review must seek to help all cohorts of mortgage prisoners and cannot focus on the previous narrative which centred around identifying borrower (risk) characteristics and shifting blame from the Government. Branding mortgage prisoners in this way serves only to shift blame from the Government so help can be withheld.
Press Release on FCA Mortgage Prisoner Review.
UK Mortgage Prisoners have been invited to meet with the FCA as part of their latest review into mortgage prisoners which was requested by Economic Secretary, John Glen MP, during his statement on the Financial Services Bill in Parliament on 26th April 2021. We are very happy to be included in the conversation but have huge reservations at the effects this review will have going forward in providing any tangible help for Mortgage Prisoners.
Press Release on Call for Moratorium on Repossessions on Mortgages held in Closed Books.
UK Mortgage Prisoners have written to the Treasury and the FCA to request a moratorium to halt repossessions for those people in closed books while we await the outcome of the FCA review requested by Economic Minister, John Glen during the recent Financial Services Bill debate in Parliament.
Press Release on reaction to the House of Commons vote on Finance Bill Amendment 8 to Cap the SVR.
UK Mortgage Prisoners today released their reaction to the failure of the Government to include amendment 8 in the Finance Bill. This measure would have provided immediate relief and significantly changed the lives of mortgage prisoners who have faced over a decade of financial and emotional misery.
UK Mortgage Prisoners today released a press release, highlighting their members growing concerns of the reluctance of their Conservative MPs to listen and understand their requests for support.
Press Release on UK Mortgage Prisoner’s reaction to the House of Lords vote on Finance Service Bill
Today, UK Mortgage Prisoner’s released a press release on their reaction to The House of Lord’s consent vote on amendment 21 to Cap the SVR on closed mortgage books.
Press Release on UK Mortgage Prisoner Report: Setting the Record Straight
Today, the UK Mortgage Prisoner Action Group has published their report on the Government-made scandal of over a decade and finally put the record straight. This comes as amendments to free mortgage prisoners are being debated in the House of Lords this afternoon.
UK Mortgage Prisoners are gravely concerned about the announcement today of the sale of another tranche of Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock mortgages. The Treasury has now condemned another approximate 29,000 families to life as mortgage prisoners and financial immobility.
UK Mortgage Prisoner response to the debate on three amendments to the Finance Bill
Three amendments designed to free mortgage prisoners through measures including an SVR cap for closed book cases only were argued down by City Minister John Glen during consideration of the Financial Services Bill in Parliament yesterday. MPs from across the political spectrum defended UK mortgage prisoners, but this fell on deaf ears.
UK Mortgage Prisoner response to APPG on Mortgage Prisoner’s amendments to Finance Bill
UK Mortgage Prisoners group was established and is run by people with lived experience of being financially and emotionally trapped on much higher interest rates, at no fault of their own, for over a decade. We have long been fighting for freedom from the clutches of vulture funds to which our mortgages were sold.
The APPG on Mortgage Prisoners, chaired by Seema Malhotra and supported by senior cross-party back bench MPs, are pushing to free our families from suffering any longer. Under three amendments to the Financial Service Bill tabled last week, the proposal aims to support mortgage prisoners that are trapped in closed books such as Heliodor, Landmark, and NRAM.
UK Mortgage Prisoner response to Martin Lewis’ LSE Research on Mortgage Prisoners
UK Mortgage Prisoners would like to thank Martin Lewis for funding the research and researchers at LSE for their attempts to find solutions. However, it is disappointing that a full cost/benefit analysis could not be conducted due to data limitations. The lack of transparency and failure to provide LSE with the required data is at best incompetence and at worst obstruction.
UK Mortgage Prisoners established as not-for-profit organisation, 17th, September 2020
UK Mortgage Prisoners, the campaign group, has registered as a not-for-profit organisation and has brought on board a number of trustees, as it seeks to support thousands of homeowners trapped on high interest mortgage deals with unregulated lenders.
Response to FCA CP 20 Statement & Consultation on mortgages, 4th August, 2020
UK Mortgage Prisoners action group which in this response from here we will refer to as UKMP. The UKMP welcomes the FCA’s further actions to help the mortgage prisoner situation but feels that the detriment that is caused on consumers trapped with inactive lenders, unregulated entities and vulture funds is still not fully realised.
Response following sale of Tulip & Engage Mortgages, 17th May, 2020
Friday 15th May marked another sinister turn in the plight of mortgage prisoners. Customers of Northern Rock, whose homes were sold by Government-owned UKAR to Tulip and Engage Credit, have received a letter telling them that their homes have been sold yet again…
Following FCA announcement, 1st May 2020
On Friday 1st May 2020, the FCA announced that it vowed to act where lenders and administrators were arbitrarily applying ‘outlier rates’ and has written to firms to ask them to review their rates to ensure their customers were being treated fairly. We thank the FCA...
Response to Bank of England base rate cut, March 11th 2020
Today the Bank of England announced an emergency interest rate cut due to the Coronavirus outbreak that threatens the global economy. Please see UK Mortgage Prisoners’ response and call out to all active lenders and inactive debt collectors to pass on this rate...
Response to FCA new affordability rules, Oct 29th 2019
UK Mortgage Prisoners would like to thank the FCA for their press release today and we look forward to seeing which lenders decide to adopt these new rules. We also need to wait to hear what lenders propose in terms of non-discriminatory mortgage products and policies that will allow a smooth transition…