Northern Rock to increase lending

The Labour Government has announced that Northern Rock will increase mortgage lending by up to £14 billion over the next two years.

The Government has made clear that it wants to see a well-functioning mortgage market where lenders lend responsibly and borrowers have access to a wide range of mortgages that they can afford to repay.

The new lending – made on commercial terms to ensure that it represents good value for money for the taxpayer – will see around around £5billion of new mortgage lending for 2009 and between £3 and £9 billion from 2010 onwards, subject to market demand.

Labour’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said:

"We want to build more houses, we want also to give people the chance to get affordable mortgages. We’ve got too few people offering mortgages that are affordable at the moment and Northern Rock is going to come back in and offer £14 billion of mortgages over the next two years and that’s a big step to giving people the chance to get mortgages at affordable prices."