The Lloyds Group has made a strategic decision to allow its borrowers to put their homes into leasing schemes. This is a victory for common sense and is the culmination of a significant effort by the Empty Homes Network and by influential people within the bank itself.
The decision by the governing powers within the bank will take a while to filter through to all the operational levels - the analogy with turning round an oil tanker is a fair one given the size of the bank - but the process is underway. And because the bank is so large, with over 25% of the UK mortgage market, the significance of this move is correspondingly greater. It establishes a reference point within the mortgage market that will influence others.
Meanwhile Lloyds Group banks - including major players such as Halifax - can utilise this new flexibility to promote their products: borrowers can see that their loans are being future-proofed against changes of circumstance that might involve them wanting to lease their homes.
Partnership response
It is now over 18 months since EHN initated a meeting with the Council of Mortgage Lenders to attempt to address the issue of borrowers from all banks being refused consent to lease their homes to social housing providers, or terms being imposed (such as unacceptably short lease terms) that would make such arrangements impossible for the providers to sign up to.
Since then, Mark Fisher and Darryl Lawrence (EHN Executive members) have met with interested parties on the lender side on several occasions, for example addressing the CML-organised Buy-to-Let meetings. David Gibbens (EHN Policy Lead) joined them in liaising with CML and DCLG and produced a Briefing for lenders that was referenced by Don Foster (then Minister for empty homes) in answer to questions posed by concerned MPs. And, importantly, within Lloyds itself Michael Vennard, who spoke at the EHN-organised Empty Homes Conference in May 2014, has promoted the commonsense view that has finally led to the adoption of a pragmaticpolicy around leasing. His involvement has been crucial.
So this has been a co-operative effort, but one in which EHN can rightly take the credit for being the prime mover.
EHN members can help implement the new policy by referring any refusals through to admin@ehnetwork.org.uk . We will pass them on, and this will help Lloyds identify any operational obstacles to implementation.
Picture credits: Royal Navy Media Archive. Some rights reserved under Creative Commons licence. Original photo Flickr.