I move amendment No. 272:
In page 57, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following subsection:
"(2) A mortgage lender who is a party to an agreement referred to in subsection (1) shall ensure that the agreement complies with that subsection.".
This is in common with a number of previous amendments to raise the offence provided for in the amended section.
As regards the Schedule on page 80 the point was raised that the total amount repayable — item No. 5 — does not mean anything. It has been represented that essentially one has a rate of interest and a number of repayment instalments. I do not know if there was a persuasive argument in favour of having that item there. It is a list of everything one pays which would be a dramatic figure because people would see how much they would pay over a life time.
It is like a headline in school where a pupil is asked what his £14,000 will come to by the time it is paid and everyone is shocked by the answer. Perhaps it is salutary in that respect. Young couples have come to me having paid a loan for 12 years, complaining that they had not realised they had up to then been paying interest and they were aghast that on a loan of £14,000 they would eventually have paid perhaps £56,000. Perhaps item No. 5 is included to make this impact, rather than for anything else. The Deputy is correct when he says it is only an indicative figure.
The problem would clearly arise with these income related loans — I think they have been scrapped.
The HFA loans have ceased.
It was on this that they probably foundered. This figure had become astronomical after three years.
