Debts & Loans

Westminster Council is to help people struggling to pay mortgages and could freeze council tax as part of a £100m plan to fight the economic gloom.

The City Recovery Programme plans to give loans to residents to help them meet mortgage payments and will focus on deprived areas of the borough.

The council also plans a council tax freeze for 2009-2010 but it will need the backing of central government.

The package also includes measures to boost small businesses and shopping.

'New approach'

The list of measures includes paying invoices from smaller business within seven to 10 days, creating apprenticeship schemes, and creating another car-free day in the West End to boost shopping.

The council will also form a pool of properties for social renting in the private sector.

Council leader Colin Barrow said the council needed to break from past precedents when "services were reduced, jobs were cut and charges increased" during recessions.



"These measures are designed to help families, encourage enterprise, improve skills and demonstrate to our residents that their city will respond, lead and act in the face of unprecedented economic crisis.

  Despite the setback of the Iceland bank crisis we have strong reserves

Councillor Colin Barrow

"We are in new territory and this is a new approach from Westminster.

"We have chosen a different path, not just business as usual, but better business and improved services at lower costs to meet the challenges that lie ahead."

He stressed that the council has enough funds even though it has £17m in failed Icelandic banks.

"Despite the setback of the Iceland bank crisis we have strong reserves, good management and the skill and determination to meet the challenges that lay ahead."



The council will put the proposals before the central government asking for its backing.

Key Westminster businesses and community organisations will meet at a summit on 27 November to discuss the best way to put this programme into practice.

Westminster is home to 46,500 businesses, more than anywhere else in the UK, and employs 2.5% of the national workforce and 14% of London's workforce.