When never becomes now

Calton is old enough to remember when building societies stopped insisting on seeing proof of an endowment policy or similar repayment vehicle when giving out interest only mortgages. He also remembers clearly seeing warnings that some sort of plan to repay the capital was necessary when taking out such a loan and was the responsibility of the borrower. Letters with traffic light colour codes warning people about the likelihood of their endowment meeting its target have been dropping through letterboxes for at least 10 years now. So Calton has little sympathy with those who 'suddenly' find themselves in the position where they aren't going to be able to repay their mortgage when it matures. Yes, some endowment policies were mis-sold, but we've been through all that and those affected have been able to claim compensation for some years now. Interest only mortgages were not, in the main, mis-sold - borrowers were just overly keen to keep their monthly payments low and over-optimistic about house price rises. The concern is that, now that it's all going pear-shaped and people are faced with a debt they can't pay, they expect someone else to foot the bill, probably the mortgage providers. This, in turn, would penalise sensible borrowers who took out repayment mortgages they could afford. A large section of the population has been living the dream on the never-never and one day soon never is going to become now. They are the ones who should feel the pain, not those who didn't buy into the fantasy of free money in the first place.