Government launched the mortgage rescue scheme with greatest of fanfares. This scheme was expected to stop repossessions and save vulnerable families from going roofless.

£285 million were allocated and thousands were told that local councils will take over the onership of properties which are due to be repossessed. That way owners can rent the properties from councils rather than going roof less.

Well, guess what - after 6 months, and half of an expected 70,000 repossessions this year alone, this government backed scheme has managed to help just 6 families.

Empty promises
Millions of took a sigh of relief when govrnment announced this scheme in Sept last year. They expected and government had stepped up to be the last refuge in case of home owners losing their homes.

Under this scheme, families consisting of senior members, disabled persons and small children, with an earning of less than 60,000 pounds per annum would be rescued from repossession. This will include virtually most people threatened with repo.

This scheme would also help them a portion of their home, which would reduce their mortgage payment considerably, or sell the whole house and stay on in he property as tenants by paying a subsidised rent.

Government's response:
No one senior enough in the government was available to give a response. However Ian Austin, a junior communities minister, admitted that only six families had been rescued until now, rather than 6,000 families who were expected to be covered so far.

According to Vincent Cable, The Liberal Democrats’ Treasury spokesperson, the scheme was supposed to help people stay on in their homes as tenants had not succeeded to the extent it was expected to. He attributed this trend to the various conditions that had to be adhered to as well as the unduly long time taken to evaluate the eligibility of home owners to be eligible under the scheme. But the redeeming aspect was 200 households had profited from the advice to stop repossession and another 295 were in the evaluation level.

Gloommier outlook ahead:
Another survey observed that there could be 100,000 cases of repossessions every year by 2011. This problem is only next to the problem of unemployment facing the country. According to Liberals, the government needs to relook into this scheme to prevent people from losing their homes permanently on account of panic selling by them to such companies who take advantage of the situation.