Simplicity Mortgages Ltd (Formerly Springdale Mortgage Corporation Ltd) And Mrs Joan Ibbitson Of Wakefield

EDM number 815 in 1999-00, proposed by David Hinchliffe on 08/06/2000.

That this House notes with extreme concern the recent difficulties facing Mrs Joan Ibbitson of Lupset, Wakefield, a foster carer with Wakefield MDC, looking for some 56 youngsters over many years, who took out a mortgage in 1998 with the former Springdale Mortgage Corporation Ltd, now Simplicity Mortgages Ltd, of Eastleigh, Hampshire, in order to purchase under Right-to-Buy legislation her council house; further notes that, as part of an agreement signed with Mrs Ibbitson, the company undertook to provide five years' sickness, accident and redundancy insurance but reneged on this agreement after she was unable to follow her occupation as a result of stress-related illness; regrets the fact that as a consequence of their failure subsequently to honour this agreement, allegedly because of her status as a foster carer, which was know to the company at the time of the original agreement, Mrs Ibbitson has had her family home of 30 years repossessed; calls upon the company to publicly apologise to Mrs Ibbitson and fully compensate her financially for the trauma and inconvenience she has experienced; and calls upon the Government to investigate the way in which companies of this kind have exploited the Right-to-Buy legislation to the detriment of people such as Mrs Ibbitson.

This motion has been signed by a total of 10 MPs.