Credit Crunch

Sue - who didn't want her surname used - has just missed a deadline to meet mortgage re-payments and is now expecting to have her home repossessed because of unemployment.

Sue told BBC Radio Leeds, "I got my first full-time job at 15... I am finding it a shock not having a wage...the house is about to be repossessed. I don't know where to turn."

She lives in Seacroft just outside the most affluent part of West Yorkshire, which is known as the Golden Triangle. The so-called Golden Triangle runs from Horsforth to Otley to Wetherby and north to Harrogate and takes in villages like Thorner and Scarcroft.

The Triangle is currently part of a £600,000 pilot project where equity loans will be offered to families and vulnerable homeowners, with help to pay monthly instalments or reduce their mortgage to a more affordable level. The idea is to help households caught out by the ‘credit crunch’ in one of the highest house price areas in the country.

Sue lives just hundreds of yards from the boundary of this affluent area and feels let down the scheme won't help her.

"I've paid well into the system to get this help... why is there discrimination against one set of people? We are all paying mortgages, I think it is class discrimination."

The latest figures show the number of people losing their homes in the UK nearly doubled in the third quarter of last year with just over 13,000 properties being repossessed.

So why should the taxpayer step into help? Sue thinks it makes economic sense in the long run.

"It will cost the government more to keep me in a council house than it would if I kept this house... It doesn't make sense to take me out of this and then help me. Why can't they not help me to stay where I am? There's help for the more well-off, why not just help me too?"

Leeds Council says the scheme isn't about keeping millionaires in mansions and although the Golden Triangle is regarded as an affluent area it also has pockets of deprivation.

The council also claims the idea is to prevent the forced migration of people who've lived in the area for years but are forced out because of an influx of wealthy residents.

Only when all available options have been explored and exhausted will a homeowner be eligible to be considered for help under the scheme. Mortgage Rescue may not be suitable for everyone.

To check eligibility for the scheme homeowners should approach the council on 0113 2476919 or Citizens Advice Bureaux on 0844 477 4788

Eligible areas in Leeds are: Thorner, Scarcorft, Barwick, Harewood, Bardsey, East Keswick, Shadwell, Otley, Pool in Wharfedale, Arthington, Wetherby, Collingham, Linton, Bramham, Clifford, Boston Spa, Thorp Arch, Walton, Bramhope, Garforth, Calverley, Weetwood, Adel, Roundhay, Alwoodley, Horsforth, Cookridge, and Scholes