Mortgage Assistance



If you are experiencing difficulties in making your mortgage repayments, in the first instance you should contact your lender, who will help you explore the options available to you.

Mortgage Rescue : Mortgage Rescue

You should also contact a debt advice agency, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, who will help you to prioritise your debts and give you advice and information on a range of services open to you.

There are two schemes aimed specifically at households experiencing difficulties in paying their mortgage. These are detailed below.

The Homeowners Mortgage Support scheme is available from your lender and is aimed at households who have experienced a temporary drop in income due to the economic downturn, but who will be able to increase their income and meet their mortgage repayments in the long term. The Mortgage Rescue Scheme is available via Tewkesbury Borough Council and is a more permanent solution for households who are unable to meet their mortgage repayments in the long term.

Mortgage Rescue Scheme

Tewkesbury Borough Council have recently launched a Mortgage Rescue Scheme, aimed at helping homeowners who own their home but can no longer afford their mortgage repayments and are facing homelessness.

Depending on their circumstances, homeowners may be eligible for either:

  • A shared equity option – where a housing association will purchase a share of the property and rent it back to the household at an affordable level. With this option, the household will retain ownership of a share of the property.
  • Mortgage to Rent – where a housing association purchases the whole property and rents it back to the household at an affordable level. With this option, the household does not retain any ownership of the property.

Only those homeowners who have dependent children (or are pregnant) or are considered to be vulnerable will be eligible for the scheme. There will also be various financial tests of eligibility, and only after the homeowner has explored all possible solutions with their lender will they be able to apply for the scheme.

The Mortgage Rescue Scheme is not an easy or a fast option and will not be suitable for everybody, but for some, this will provide the best solution to enable them to remain in their home.

For more information on the scheme, please contact the Housing Advice Team. There are also further details available in the Frequently Asked Questions section.

Homeowners Mortgage Support

This is a new scheme recently announced by the Government, aimed at helping homeowners who are at risk of repossession after having experienced a sharp drop in income.

It enables households to postpone part of the interest payment on their mortgage for up to two years and so is suitable for households whose income has been temporarily reduced, but who will be able to increase their income in the long term and meet their full mortgage payments again.

This scheme is being run by the government and mortgage lenders and so you should contact your lender if you are interested in applying for this support.

More information about Homeowners Mortgage Support can be found in the leaflet attached on the right hand side of the page and in our Frequently Asked Questions section (link on the right hand side of the page).