Starmer and his party seem to have concluded direct support for homeowners cannot be justified – but it’s smart politics to be seen to take on the banks

Labour’s “five-point plan” to ease the pain in the Mortgage market can be boiled down to a single idea: get heavy with the lenders – the banks and building societies – to make them play nicely with over-stretched borrowers.

One cannot call it a radical idea, however. First, it’s in the interests of lenders themselves, up to a point, to be flexible by, say, lengthening the term of the loan, granting a payment holiday or allowing a borrower to switch to interest-only arrangements for a while. Second, many banks say they already have such policies in place, even if critics say they’re not advertising them with enthusiasm.

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