Lunchtime news June 11

Struggling homeowners in Wales are to be given a financial lifeline. An extra £5 million has been transferred to the Welsh Assembly’s mortgage rescue scheme in a bid to stop homeowners who face repossession from being made homeless.

The target of ending homelessness by 2012 in Scotland might not be achieved across all of Scotland, MSPs are being warned. Gavin Corbett, policy manager at Shelter Scotland is to speak on the issue when he gives evidence to MSPs on Holyrood’s local government and communities committee.

Still in Scotland, the results of the 2007 Scottish household survey, published today, paint a rosy picture with 93 per cent of adults rating their neighbourhood as a very or fairly good place to live.

Inequality in Britain is equal to its highest level since figures were first available in 1961, according to new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The figures show a widening gap between the richest and poorest families and a second annual 100,000 jump in the number of children living below the government’s poverty threshold. The IFS said that, despite the billions of pounds spent on tax credits, Labour had yet to meet its 2005 target of reducing child poverty by a quarter.

Council of Mortgage Lenders statistics reveal that 23,000 people who took out 100 per cent mortgages in the year to March 31 could see their properties go into negative equity as house prices continue to fall.