Mortgage arrears and possessions will be a key issue for lenders this year, and these topics will come under scrutiny at one of our first major events of 2011, the mortgage arrears and possessions conference, being held at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, on 17 February.
The conference will begin with an assessment by CML senior policy adviser, Nick Wood, of the lending environment, including our forecasts for this year – just a week after publication of our latest quarterly data on arrears and possessions.
It will be followed by a session focusing on the impact of spending cuts on borrowers in arrears by Shelter senior policy officer, Nicola Hughes.
There will then be an opportunity for delegates to discuss the main challenges in managing arrears and possessions in the first half of this year and beyond, before Clare Mortimer, of the Financial Ombudsman Service, outlines her organisation’s perspective on the issues.
After lunch, delegates can choose to participate in a range of break-out sessions covering a diverse range of topics including affordability research; the role of field agents; over-indebtedness and affordability; lessons to the learned from the US; working with customers with debt and mental health problems; and managing the legal pitfalls and risks of appointing a receiver to manage buy-to-let properties.
The conference will come to an end with presentations on the changing status of tenants in mortgage possession claims; local authority best practice; and the prudential management of arrears by John Fisher, senior risk specialist at the Financial Services Authority.
We are now taking bookings for the event, which will be chaired by the CML’s head of policy, Jackie Bennett.
