Mark Griffin MSP

With thousands more expected to suffer as mortgage rates continue to rise, Scottish Labour’s Mark Griffin has called for the relaunch of a revamped mortgage to shared equity scheme.

According to Mr Griffin, the scheme would amend the eligible house price thresholds so that it is not only the lowest value homes that qualify, and also reduce the size of the equity that people need to have in their property to ensure that buyers who have recently bought their home with smaller deposits and are rolling off their fixed rate can still access support.

Mr Griffin has also called for increased resources dedicated to Home Owner Support so that they can deliver a maximum of a two month turnaround for applications.

The Scottish Labour housing spokesperson said: “As Scots continue to struggle with the cost of living crisis and rising mortgage rates, it is absolutely vital that we have a strong safety net in place to prevent people losing their homes.

“The SNP has had months now to adopt Scottish Labours plans and relaunch the support available to people facing repossession, but as usual they are more focused on spin than providing real solutions.

“Right now, housing support is languishing under a leadership that is out of touch and out of ideas.

“Only Scottish Labour is taking the threat facing Scottish homeowners seriously and working within the UK to ensure that this mortgage bombshell has as little impact as possible.”

A spokesman for SNP housing minister Paul McLennan said: “It’s Labour who need to acknowledge that this mortgage crisis is of Westminster’s making — with a cost-of-living crisis and a deeply damaging Brexit which they support.

“Labour must either accept responsibility as a UK party to come up with Westminster-based solutions, or accept that with independence Scotland could not only help people with this immediate crisis, but make our country fairer and more prosperous to prevent such crises happening in the future.”