@vicderbyshire please explain why you are discussing Muslims and Jews not staying on topic Israel Gaza media are responsible for what we are seeing on the streets of London
@MartinSLewis It was an opportunity for your high profile name to be used why did they refuse charities and experts? I seem to recall they did same thing about school dinners @jamieoliver
They can't say they weren't warned!
Last Autumn, I raised an alarm about a coming potential mortgage ticking time bomb with millions facing huge bill-shock as their fixes end.
So much so the Chancellor called a mortgage summit; sadly it was just a missed opportunity talking shop...
I want to briefly bash out some thoughts on this.
The summit in December was attended by the Chancellor, FCA chair, the bosses of UK's biggest banks and me (I'd asked for consumer charities & mortgage experts to attend too but that wasn't agreed - tho my team and I worked hard talking to charities and mortgage brokers before to collate ideas).
My reason for suggesting the Chancellor took action was simple. We needed to prepare in case it rates rocketed - waiting for it to happen would be too late. Yet now, the time bomb has exploded, and we're scrambling about what to do.
One of the big concerns I raised was that banks were increasing their margins - basically the gap between what lenders are charged and savers paid. That should (and still should) be tightened and political pressure needs applying to ensure either better mortgages or better savings or best, both.
Other practical suggestions were not about radical change, but easy to agree forbearance and help measures to get people over the hump while they readjusted their finances.
A range of methods such as payment holidays, payment reductions, lengthening the mortgage term were discussed, plus proactive communication with borrowers who look like they may be struggling and independent solid guidance about what people's options were if they were struggling.
There were lots of nods from the bankers and many 'we do that alreadies', and indeed some extra customer communications did come out on the back.
Yet real changes met push back - sometimes the banks both from banks and the FCA. For example
1. Any help options should be easily reversible on request. Eg if you extend your term, to reduce payments, when things improve you should have an automatic right to reduce the term.
Knowing there is a reversibility option gets rid of a barrier to action - without reversibility people are scared to be locked into a longer mortgage (which means more interest).
2. It should have no or minimal impact on people's credit scores (as it did in the pandemic). Again negative credit file impact is a big barrier to action
- as it leaves people reticent to make a decision, which can lead to snowballing problems.
None of the suggestions have seen any real fruition. The attention faded, especially when rates didn't rise as sharply as first expected.
Though we are now in exactly the situation that the whole meeting was meant to prepare for. Now I read about proposed 'forbearance' measures being looked at, it does feel as a shame the stable door is already closing...
@bbcnickrobinson@campbellclaret@DanNeidle@bbclaurak Nick he is just saying you are very
late to the party and licence fee payers are expecting more from BBC
Many good journalists seem to be leaving BBC one has to wonder why
There’s a very lengthy backstory to Nadhim Zahawi’s HMRC settlement, and lots of people have been asking me to summarise it. Here goes:
https://t.co/mMdmSVp8bO
@JeremyVineOn5 Saw my GP last week and got referral to ENT he said that NHS appointment will likely take several months I opted for private & seen yesterday. That was one week from referral. I don't have millions but my health is priority even at the expense of no holiday
@JeremyVineOn5@awilliamsonTV None of us can relate because as Harry has said himself he sees things in the context of the family he grew up in. All use the terms monarchy machine the firm etc. That is not the experience of any one of us. Our understanding of "family" cannot be compared to his
@K9sixtwo @MarshallCAJ3107 @ruskin147 Twitter has so many experts and on every subject you could ever imagine!! I'll resist commenting other than to say love following the journey, Sophie is giving a lot of joy to many people
I was given a bar of Christmas Pudding chocolate. I had never had Christmas Pudding chocolate before. I tried it. It was very nice. That was yesterday. I was going to have some this morning. It's gone. The reason why it's gone is that I ate it. Why is the world so unfair?