"I have just read the article from Nick Rhodes and can't help but feel that all of these so called industry experts are missing the criticial point about the mortgage market.
It seems that all the rhetoric is about rate reduction and banks being put under pressure to reduce the rates so that people can afford mortgages. This is, of course, beneficial to massage the housing / mortgage market and make it appealing again however the larger underlying issue is the willingness of lenders to allow people to borrow, almost irrespective of price.
As a broker I could sell the rates available as at today - in my opinion they aren't that bad when you consider rates around 10-15% not more than 15-16 years ago - what is getting increasingly difficult is getting the lending. I don't have a large adverse client base or clients with high LTVs and sometimes seem to be struggling to get deals through mainstream lenders with people who have minor or sometimes no damage to their credit profiles.
Most recently HBOS group, Lloyds TSB Group, RBS group and Barclays have all tightened there lending criteria or credit scoring to such an extent that even those with a good credit score are failing on automated solutions. When cases are thrown in front of underwriters they are looking at them from a very blinkered "black & white" view point. Only Abbey seems to offer a little bit of credible lending acumen by looking at the whole scenario.
As such this means that when a lender releases a new lower rate it creates good PR for them but offers very little to the public, who in the cases of some institutions above, are supplementing their ability to trade at all in the form of government hand outs created by taxing the public in the first place. I was previously a mortgage underwriter for a large lender, in the mid nineties not the boom time of the last 6 years, and we were taught "look to lend", only decline if there is a good reason to decline e.g. large unsatisfied CCJ's, recent defaults on multiple agreements, bankruptcy, IVA's etc.
As brokers I think more needs to be done to lobby lenders to get back to sensible but also realisitc lending. From the lenders I have spoken to most appear to be well under the 6% recognised acceptable arrears rate and yet they want to protect their book further by not taking on board debtors they previously welcomed with open arms (most of whom have maintained payments on credit over the past few years).
I understand the banks now need to consolidate and repair their balance sheets but how are they allowed to get away with this at the expense of the general public who support them through deposits and borrowing and now goverment lending?
Sorry to rant but I read most of the articles from both yourselves and other trade press and all I hear is "cut rates" when really what I believe we need to be saying is "cut people some slack" by not tarring us (general mortgage customers) with the incompetence of the Americans and their lending practices.
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