Vol. 517 No. 1
159 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the steps, if any, he has taken to rectify the anomaly where low-income families are being forced to pay a fixed interest rate on county council loans because they signed up for these loans many years ago and are not in a financial position to get mortgage support elsewhere; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9205/00]
The Government's recently published review of An Action Programme for the Millennium contains a commitment to target support at home owners with high fixed interest rate local authority loans. This commitment relates to higher fixed interest rates on loans, advanced in the 1970s up to the mid-1980s, which reflected the cost of long-term funds available at that time. Borrowers with local authority fixed rate mortgages are free, since 1980, to redeem such loans without any interest rate penalty and refinance in the private sector. My Department is currently examining options with a view to putting in place measures to implement the Government's commitment as soon as possible.
