John Glen writes to Martin Lewis on mortgage prisoners

John Glen MP has written to Martin Lewis regarding mortgage prisoners, following the news that Lewis is funding academic research to try to find solutions to release 250,000 mortgage prisoners.

In his letter, Glen outlines that any proposal regarding mortgage prisoners will be given full consideration, however the solutions must meet three strict requirements.

The three requirements are that any solution must deliver value-for-more for the government, as well as individuals.

It must be a “fair use” of taxpayers money and it must deal with the risk of “moral hazard”, which it outlines as addressing how it is decided mortgage prisoners should receive financial support compared to other mortgage holders and renters.

Martin Lewis, founder at MoneySavingExpert, said: “It was good to get a letter back from John Glen MP, he's clearly following the news with mortgage prisoners.

“Though that's not to say I agree with it all. I believe the mortgage prisoners situation is intolerable and needs to be sorted quickly, whereas he represents the government and has other wider interests to represent.

“The most telling part of his response is where he sets out the three prime criteria that need to be met for any mortgage prisoner solution.

“These are quite strict. And while there's good mood music coming out of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Mortgage Prisoners recently, these constraints show where those dealing directly with the government sit.

“I will of course be passing on these criteria to the LSE so that they can be added into any tests that are looked at for mortgage prisoners solutions.

“Though of course, we won't solely be constrained to its red lines.

“The public and other policymakers also have a valuable contribution to make.

“So, we will look at both its criteria but also other positive solutions even if the current government wouldn't consider them.”