Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make representations at EU level to prevent an EU Mortgage Credit Directive from (a) significantly altering current regulatory practice in the UK and (b) increasing costs and administration for businesses and consumers.

The UK already has a robust regulatory regime to protect consumers in the UK mortgage market.

Throughout the negotiation of the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD), the UK focused on aligning its requirements as far as possible with the existing UK regulations, with a view to minimising the impact on UK industry and consumers.

The Government’s proposed approach to the implementation of the MCD, as with the negotiations, is to minimise the impact on the UK market. For this reason the Government is proposing to build on the existing UK regulatory regime in our transposition of the MCD, rather than copy out the Directive into UK legislation.

This approach is set out in more detail in the Government’s consultation on the Implementation of the EU MCD, which closed on 31 October. A summary of responses to the consultation will be published in due course.