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In the News
Press Release, 29th June 2026
New Energy Advice Service Launched for Mortgage Prisoners Left Behind in the
Cost-of-Living Crisis
Pure Leapfrog and UK Mortgage Prisoners join forces to tackle fuel poverty among households locked out of affordable mortgages.
A specialist energy advice service for mortgage prisoners has launched across the UK, created by sustainability innovation charity Pure Leapfrog in collaboration with advocacy group UK Mortgage Prisoners. The free service supports households trapped on high-rate mortgages who are struggling with rising energy costs- a group that campaigners say has been overlooked by mainstream fuel poverty programmes.
Around 200,000 households in the UK are classified as mortgage prisoners, many as a direct consequence of the 2008 financial crash. The combination of high mortgage payments and cold, inefficient homes leaves many mortgage prisoners at severe risk of fuel poverty.
About the service
The service provides practical, personalised guidance on reducing energy bills, tackling damp and mould, improving home comfort, and accessing small but effective energy-saving measures. It was designed in collaboration with mortgage prisoners to meet their unique needs. Advisers also refer clients to support schemes, including:
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Boiler replacement funding
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Home energy efficiency upgrades
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Help with energy bills and debt
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Wider cost-of-living assistance
Louise’s story
Louise, a mortgage prisoner living in a listed building who is a carer for a family member, contacted the service for help with draughty windows and doors. She also believed she couldn’t switch energy tariff as she’d been told by Octopus that a £150 exit fee would apply if she switched tariff before moving home.
The service identified Ofgem guidance confirming that exit fees do not apply when a customer is moving home, and contacted the supplier directly to obtain written confirmation. This enabled Louise to switch to a cheaper fixed-rate tariff ahead of the July price rise, securing that rate for the coming year, or however long she remains in the property.
Her adviser also identified funding options for her draughty door and a charity willing to fund a full front door replacement, and arranged a carpenter's quote so an application could be submitted on her behalf.
Louise later wrote to the service: "Thank you so very much for being so amazing and for finding solutions to something we have just accepted for so long now."
Her experience reflects the reality for thousands of mortgage prisoners: high bills, cold homes, and years of feeling overlooked.
A fairer future for mortgage prisoners
The new service is calling for mortgage prisoners to be explicitly recognised within fuel poverty policy, included in Warmer Homes funding programmes, and supported to make essential improvements they have long been unable to afford.
Mortgage prisoners have been left behind for far too long. Many are living in cold, inefficient homes because they simply haven’t had the financial freedom to make improvements. This new service exists to change that practically, compassionately, and with a person-centred approach.
“Mortgage prisoners have been dealing with the double burden of inflated mortgage payments and cold, inefficient homes for years, with very little help supporting their unique situation. This service exists to change that- providing energy advice that acknowledges the unfairness of mortgage prisoners’ situation, and is designed in collaboration with them to meet their needs”
Becky Winter, Head of Energy Advice Services, Pure Leapfrog
"It is rare to sit in a room with an organisation that has made such efforts to understand so well the Mortgage Prisoner situation, past and present, and the wider repercussions, while, at the same time, treating individuals with such compassion and credibility.
UKMP and our mediation service HOPE (Home Ownership Protection Enterprise) are delighted to have helped design and to collaborate with Pure Leapfrog on this project to provide a dedicated energy advice service which is designed to bring bespoke relief to Mortgage Prisoners burdened by the "fallout" from years of the financial trauma resulting from being trapped customers on high variable rates and/or historic interest only mortgages for over 15 years".
Rachel Neale, Lead Campaigner of UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group
Contact the service
Mortgage prisoners, support workers, and advisers can access the service by:
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Visiting pureleapfrog.org/mortgageprisoners
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Calling 0114 299 9770
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Emailing energyadvice@pureleapfrog.org
Notes to editors
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Pure Leapfrog is a UK community energy and sustainability innovation charity with 20 years' experience helping communities create renewable energy projects, make homes more energy efficient, and build a low-carbon future.
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UK Mortgage Prisoners is a campaigning organisation representing households trapped in unaffordable mortgage deals.
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An estimated 200,000 UK households are classified as mortgage prisoners, the majority paying interest rates significantly above the market average. When lenders collapsed during the 2008 financial crash, their mortgages were sold to private equity and hedge funds that don’t offer new deals. As a result, borrowers were moved onto significantly higher rates when their fixed terms ended. Tighter affordability rules introduced after the crash mean many don’t qualify for a new mortgage with a better rate, even with a strong payment record.
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Pure Leapfrog and UK Mortgage Prisoners collaborated to run workshops with mortgage prisoners to understand their current reality and feed into the design of the service.
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A spokesperson is available for interview. Contact: Sarah Asbury, Lead Energy Advisor on sarah.asbury@pureleapfrog.org
Press Release, 20th November 2025
Mortgage Prisoners at Highest Risk as Repossessions Rise
BBC news reported yesterday live from court as people faced repossession amid reports that homelessness has doubled in three years
At UK Mortgage Prisoners we acknowledge the difficulties and fear faced by many 'high street' mortgage customers in the face of increases in mortgage interest rates and the cost of living crisis which has led to increased numbers of repossessions.
However, this only serves to highlight the scandal of the severe detriment suffered by the many thousands of our members who are trapped pre 2008 borrowers from a time when they took on safe mortgages but were sold to non-lending entities by their government without protections.
Our members' mortgages are held on high variable rates by profiteering non lenders who do not offer fixed rates or alternate products and who do not offer the options Government so often refer to as a safety net for customers in difficulty.
We are dealing with extremely vulnerable, highly distressed people facing losing their homes and many for whom it is too late. Our members have suffered financial trauma for upwards of 15 years as a consequence of action to rescue Northern Rock and others. Our members have been wrongly blamed and vilified for the situation thrust upon them.
In addition, market wide, many thousands of historic interest only mortgages, which were perfectly acceptable and sold without repayment vehicles, at a time when brokers actively promoted this type of borrowing, prior to regulatory change, are coming to end of term and these people are losing their homes with insufficient equity to find anywhere else to live. There is much ignorance around the issue of mortgage prisoners and the plight of market wide historic interest only customers especially among those who have taken out mortgages more recently.
Repossessions in the Mortgage Prisoner community are disproportionate, even for customers with no arrears, but facing term end, and we have been calling for effective action for years now with no Government prepared to act.
Hidden repossessions in the form of "forced" sales are simply counted as reductions in numbers of these historic mortgages with no data on the impact on the customer, or their ensuing housing circumstances.
UK Finance has stated that possessions taking place are predominantly relating to these older mortgages “with more than two-thirds of possessions relating to mortgages arranged at least a decade ago”
As a Campaign Group we have called for a Public Inquiry and demanded that sales of residential mortgages to non-lending investment funds with no products to offer is not permitted to continue.
Government and Industry must not continue to see these historic mortgages as simply a numbers run down. UK families and older customers, often ill, are living in caravans or hostels or other forms of unsuitable temporary accommodation. Policy around these mortgages is absent and indeed UK Finance cites possession as helping customers exit mortgages while retaining as much of their equity as possible. This is certainly not our experience of the many cases we see. Many of our members are repossessed with and without arrears. Inordinate litigation and agent costs are added to accounts, homelessness and health breakdown are the results we see.
In a country struggling with lack of housing much more must be done to keep these customers in their homes. We urge Government to acknowledge the harm done and for Industry to work together with ourselves and others at the coal face to adopt policy to prevent increasing homelessness among these borrowers.
Press Release, 6th February 2025
Hope of small relief for Mortgage Prisoners if the non lenders choose to pass on the rate cut to their financially desperate, unfairly trapped customers.
UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group welcome the cut to Bank of England Base Rate announced today and calls for this to immediately be applied by all closed book Mortgage administrators to the exorbitant variable interest rates UK Mortgage Prisoner members are trapped on. These rates have led to serious detriment and many struggling with arrears issues now facing repossession or forced sales.
The UK Mortgage Prisoner scandal has been allowed to continue without effective intervention by Government and Regulator for almost 17 years.
On 7th February 2025 Lord Sharkey (Liberal Democrat) will bring forward the second reading of the Mortgage Prisoners Inquiry Bill to require the government to hold a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Mortgage Prisoners. This is supported by UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group who have written to Emma Reynolds Economic Secretary to the Treasury outlining that, had the reforms proposed under the previous Labour government been introduced, where potential for significant consumer harm was identified, years of misery and pain for Mortgage Prisoners could have been avoided and homes and lives saved.
Rachel Neale, Lead Campaigner stated
"the current Government have opportunity to act so that a government and regulatory caused scandal can be resolved to give trapped borrowers back stability and financial inclusion in the active market and a chance to begin to recover from years of horrendous financial trauma.
The crisis is currently deepening as the impact of consecutive rate rises have led to unsustainable payments and arrears and with many of these mortgages coming to term end homes are being lost weekly to the horror of repossession or forced sales and homelessness"
It is time that the truth of the Mortgage Prisoner scandal is brought to the light of a Public Inquiry.
Press Release, 7th November 2024
UK Mortgage Prisoner Action group response to Bank of England rate cut
UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group welcomes a further cut to Base Rate which may be some small comfort to Mortgage Prisoners unfairly trapped on standard variable rates with non-lending debt collectors who should never have been permitted to administer residential mortgages.
These entities were slow to pass on the last base rate cut and we call on closed books to immediately pass on the benefit of this Bank of England base rate cut to their customers.
Rachel Neale, Lead Campaigner said,
"Our members have suffered severe and enduring detriment as a result of inaction and failures by the Conservative Government. Many continue to lose their homes, and there is serious ongoing emotional, physical and financial pain.
There is no excuse for this rate cut not to be immediately passed on to our members. We have had no positive indications from the new Labour Administration despite Sir Keir Starmer's agreement that his Party would work to ensure this issue is properly addressed and his acknowledgement of the fact that the Conservatives dragged their feet on this for years."
We hope the FCA are watching closely the fair value outcomes in the Consumer Duty in regard to closed book mortgages.
We expect to see this rate cut applied to our members' variable rate mortgages without delay.
1st Aug 2024
Calls on closed books to immediately pass on the benefit of the Bank of England base rate cut to their customers.
UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group calls on closed books to immediately pass on the benefit of the Bank of England base rate cut to their customers.
Although denying their rates are directly connected to Central Bank rates, these entities have passed on 14 consecutive rate rises thereby crippling Mortgage Prisoners on rates averaging between 8-10% with no access to alternate fixed rates as these vulture funds administrators do not lend.
Rachel Neale, Lead Campaigner said
" While arrears are increasing in the wider market, Mortgage Prisoners have been trapped on high variable rates for almost 16 years since the failed banks were rescued while their customers were held on reversionary interest rates with no means of escape. Our members have suffered immeasurable detriment as a result and many have lost their homes, their emotional, physical and financial wellbeing and in some cases, their lives. This was highlighted during the preliminary stages of the group legal action commencing with TSB/Whistletree cases which took place in London last week.
It will be an absolute travesty if cuts are not immediately passed on to bring some small welcome relief while we continue to press the new Labour Government, Regulator and Industry for broader relief and resolution to this government created crisis that has been kicked aside for far too long".
Mrs Neale added "We will be interested to see how these mortgage companies can justify their rates in light of the application of the new FCA Consumer Duty coming into effect for closed books yesterday, including where fair value outcomes should be applied to closed products".
The Campaign Group will be meeting the new Treasury Ministers later this year but will be calling on Government to act in advance of that meeting to prevent forced sales and repossessions.
UK Mortgage Prisoner Action Group
Statement
8th Aug 2024
Urgent Call to protect Mortgage Prisoners facing repossession
After years of disappointment, UK Mortgage Prisoners Action Group welcomes, with hope, the new Government's focus on accountability, honesty, and transparency.
Today, UKMP Action Group are calling for urgent action to protect Mortgage Prisoners, and to curb the tsunami of repossessions and forced sales it is seeing. There is no time to wait.
As millions of families with access to mainstream products are going on their summer holidays, Mortgage Prisoners are stuck on interest rates approaching 10% and many are losing their homes daily. Most recent data from the Bank of England and Ministry of Justice show In Q1 2024, the value of outstanding mortgage balances with arrears increased by 4.2% from the previous quarter, and compared to the same quarter in 2023, mortgage possession claims increased from 4,035 to 5,182 (28%).
If reforms proposed under the previous Labour Government had been introduced, years of misery and pain could have been avoided. The 2009 Consultation and impact assessment on Mortgage Regulation identified the potential for significant consumer harm ‘Such activity clearly has the potential to cause severe harm to borrowers.’
Unfortunately, this has all come to pass.
The Tory Government reversed plans to implement these protections. It then oversaw years of ignoring and obfuscation of a problem of its own making, leading to suicides, bankruptcies, and eviction of families from their homes.
Increasing interest rates have pushed SVRs these Borrowers are trapped on to between 9 and 13 percent, allowing for widespread profiteering at the expense of working families.
Interest Only borrowers now coming to end of term are locked out of options and face losing their homes. They have been demonised for taking a product commonly sold and promoted pre regulatory change and have been trapped since the 2008 crash and unable to switch mortgage type or overpay due to being held on high rates. We need creative solutions to keep these aging Borrowers in their homes and prevent a later years housing crisis.
Many Mortgage Prisoners trapped on high SVRs have fallen into arrears as a consequence of 14 consecutive rate rises and are excluded from the very narrow FCA 2021 definition due to the limited parameters of the Tory directed Review and not counted in Mortgage Prisoner numbers even though they do not have access to mainstream rates. This is wrong.
The new Government has an opportunity to stop the ongoing harm and to reset borrowers’ relationships with the mortgage market. Whilst there is a need for a full public inquiry, this is not the priority today. Today, we need to stop the haemorrhaging of money and homes. We need immediate action.
In the short term, we need to protect borrowers and keep them in their homes. This necessitates:
An immediate halt to repossession actions due to arrears for Mortgage Prisoners trapped on SVRs or in closed books and for pre 2008 Interest Only Borrowers at term end for an initial period of 6 months to allow for time to work through solutions with the new Government.
The closed books include the following (but this is not an exhaustive list):
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Topaz Finance who operate, Heliodor, Rosalite, Hessonite, Hyalite, and more
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MAS5 (owned by Cooperative Bank)
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Landmark
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Pepper/Engage Credit
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Ascenden
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Rooftop
Mainstream market loans at end of term with Lenders such as BOS, Santander etc
Thereafter, Government needs to move swiftly to:
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Ban the ownership of mortgage books by 'inactive' lenders who do not operate Lending Licences or offer new products.
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Ban the sale of any further mortgage books to inactive lenders and the holding of mortgages in securitisation vehicles without access to new products.
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Hold accountable legal and beneficial owners of residential mortgages.
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Help facilitate the transfer of mortgages to active lenders at a discount that reflects the tens of thousands of pounds of overpayments mortgage prisoners have overpaid in the years since 2008.
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Review whether SVRs are compatible with the new Consumer Duty.
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Review FCA Mortgage Prisoner definition.
Further details of asks can be found in our Mortgage Reform document.
Government has a moral obligation to set this straight and to ease the suffering of those that have borne the cost of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
All we are asking for now is for the current Government to review and implement action started by the previous Labour Government with an eye to the current resultant outcome. We have endured 16 years of inaction and obfuscation, and it is time to end the pain.
UK Mortgage Prisoner Action Group