MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News Update

The first of the new Typhoons on the tarmac at MPA this week

Headlines: Typhoons have landed; A champion for the cause of first-time home buyers; Argentina snubs Islands delegates at world summit.

Typhoons have landed

POWERED by twin turbojets, they can fly at twice the speed of sound. Equipped with air-to-air missiles and a radar capable of tracking multiple long-range targets, their pilots can carry out functions by voice command while manoeuvring the 16-metre carbon fibre aircraft up to 12 miles above the earth. The Typhoons have landed, and this month take over air defence duties in the Falklands from the F3 Tornados, which are being removed from service after 17 years in the Islands. Two arrived at MPA on Wednesday, with the remainder due in coming weeks.

A champion for the cause of first-time home buyers

When a young Falklands mum learned her mortgage application had been rejected, she could easily have given up there and then. Instead she has chosen to challenge the bank’s ruling. Tony Curran presents an in-depth report on how one woman’s efforts may lead to new opportunities for first-time home buyers…

Donna Triggs is not unlike many young people of her generation – aiming to lay the foundations for a secure future and a home of her own.

The 24-year-old has had a steady job for the past five years, and she is meticulous in her finances, as one might expect from a trainee accountant.

While she has lived in rented accommodation since soon after college, she has saved diligently. And, with a baby arriving less than two years ago, it has required much fiscal discipline.

She says she has never sought an overdraft, her expenses never exceed her income, her rent is always paid on time, and she has never used a credit card.

To all intent and purposes, Donna appears to be a level-headed young woman who has a sensible and mature outlook to her future prospects. And, like so many of her contemporaries, she would very much like to own her own home. “Ever since I got into rented accommodation I have been determined to get my own place as soon as I can,” she said.

“I have been saving for five years. I am on the highest in-come I have earned, and I have saved a substantial amount for a deposit.”

With funds at her disposal, she approached Standard Chartered Bank with a degree of confidence: “I talked to a member of staff who worked out it was likely I would be entitled to a mortgage for the amount which I was applying for,” said Donna.

A short time later, she submitted her application form: “I felt quite excited about being able to plan towards the future for our family,” she said. “It is important. I feel like a home is the base stone.”

But when she handed in her form, the dream of owning her own home was about to collapse in front of her: “The person at the bank was obviously upset. She said I wasn’t entitled to a mortgage because the re-payments represented more than 40 per cent of my income. I felt disappointed and a bit confused.”

But it was not a misunderstanding of the bank’s figures that left her confused, nor even the bank’s policy of not lending more than 40 per cent of her eligible earnings. It was the fact that had she been granted the mortgage she would have been better off by almost £70 a month: “The mort-gage payments were less than the rent I am paying,” she said.

“I would have been left with more money in my pocket, about £65-£70 per month.

“It was ludicrous, really. The owner of the house thought it was ridiculous that the repayments would be less than I pay in rent.

“Yet I cannot be granted a mortgage as the bank feels this would put me in financial difficulties. The whole situation was really silly, to be honest.

“I want that extra feeling of security for myself and my daughter – a place of our own which we can call home.

“Surely that can’t be un-reasonable? Surely I am not the only person in this situation?

“There must be other people like me who feel there is nothing else they can do.”

For Donna, there was something she could do. She approached a member of council, who raised her case at last month’s ExCo meeting.

As a result of that meeting, the Falklands Government has now instructed the Treasury to revisit plans to develop a scheme whereby the government may be able to underwrite that portion of a loan which the bank is not prepared to grant.

And Donna’s tenacity may well prove the catalyst for first-time buyers such as herself to be offered a new opportunity to climb the property ladder.

But she does not want preferential treatment, either from the government or the bank.

“If an exception was made for me and not everyone else then that would be really unfair,” she said.

“I want something good to come out of this for everyone. This isn’t just about me; it’s about other young people too.” - See who took up Donna’s case, and how both the government and the bank are responding in our special report on page 5

Argentina Snubs Islands Delegates At World Summit: Pag 2