LOCAL FAMILIES STRUGGLING TO MAKE MORTGAGE PAYMENTS - LORELY BURT

11.54.52pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 13th Jun 2007

Commenting on figures published today by the Council of Mortgage Lenders showing that mortgages in Solihull are at their least affordable for 15 years, local LibDem MP Lorely Burt said:

"Many local families are now struggling to meet interest payments as house prices and interest rates continue to rise.

"Gordon Brown has been extraordinarily lucky so far, but a combination of an economic slowdown and higher interest rates could spell disaster for large numbers of heavily indebted families across Solihull.

"A generation of young people are now finding it impossible to get onto the housing ladder in Solihull, except by borrowing at levels which are ludicrous and dangerous. Unfortunately some mortgage lenders are inviting disaster by doing just this.

"If interest rates rise further, many local home owners will simply not be able to pay. The figures over the last two years show that although we are not yet at the crisis levels of the early 1990s, the number of repossessions and repossession orders is soaring right across the West Midlands."