A local Labour councillor was explaining on local radio why the Labour party disagrees with the speed of the coalition’s approach to reining back public expenditure.
It’s like having a 20 or 25 year mortgage, she said. Most listeners probably have one, as I do. In fact many people probably have two or three …
Pardon?
Perhaps it is not so odd as we thought, though multiple mortgages became unfashionable after the 1990s recession when many people were caught out by arrears on a second mortgage or a secured loan for improvements. Those who had become home owners under the Right To Buy seemed particularly vulnerable to the blandishments of those peddling these kinds of loans – all those Georgian front doors had to be paid for somehow. (There used to be a joke that, on any council estate you could tell how many houses had been sold by counting the fancy front doors). Remortgaging seemed safer & became so much easier – until the current crisis. Perhaps people have gone back to the bad old ways.
