NINO STAFFA these criteria are used in addition to the manager's overall impression of the applicant( s) » (45). The type of applicant they prefer to lend money to is young, married (or about to be married), a white-collar worker with good career prospects, who has saved money with the Building Society, has a respectable appearance and is white. Self-employed people, women, skilled and unskilled workers with low basic wages (albeit with high overtime rates) are all looked upon with varying degrees of suspicion. The type of property that building societies prefer to lend money on is a post-1945, 3 or 4 bedroomed house located in the suburbs. All other properties are measured against this ideal. The calculations which the societies make to determine how big a loan (or how small a loan) to make to an individual borrower are usually based on either the« use of the multiple» (3 or 4 times gross annual income) or the consideration that the mortgage should not exceed one week's income (the household should not pay more than 25% of their income for accommodation by either renting or buying). Given that the private rented sector has declined so drastically and the only alternatives remaining are owner-occupation and local authority housing the « competition » for mortgages and council house tenancies is fierce. The stringent criteria applied by the main suppliers of mortgages (the building societies) would leave a large number of people who need to buy a house unsatisfied. « Mortgage brokers» and « finance houses» are just two species of parasites who descend on people in need to make them pay for the crime of not conforming with the building societies «managers» view of the ideal borrower. This « idea] borrower» would, incidentally, have to be an employee of either a« public » or« private » corporation in order to have necessary income, job security and promotion prospects. « Mortgage brokers » perform the service of finding a building society which will accept his client as a borrower. « Mortgage brokers stand between sources of finance (e.g. building societies, insurance companies, etc .. J and the prospective purchaser. Their own influence and status are important aspects of this relationship. As with solicitors, they channel investment and business to these different institutions. In return they are rewarded for their work with mortgages (45) WILLIAMS P.: op. cit., p. 37. 28
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTExMDY2NQ==