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LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Britain's government publishedproposals to give the Bank of England new legal powers tocontrol residential mortgage lending on Thursday, but said itwanted more evidence before deciding on a BoE request toregulate lending to landlords.
The proposals are in line with finance minister GeorgeOsborne's desire to give the BoE greater oversight ofresidential mortgage lending to reduce the risk that the housingmarket could overheat and destabilise Britain's economy.
"The government is proposing that the Bank is granted powersof direction for loan-to-value limits and debt-to-income limitsfor owner-occupied mortgages," Osborne said in a statement.
The BoE's Financial Policy Committee (FPC) can alreadyrecommend limits on how much banks should lend mortgageapplicants relative to their income and the value of their home.Both the BoE and the government want to beef up the FPC's powersby making such limits legally enforceable.
With a view to implementing the laws before a generalelection next May, the consultation will start at once and runto Nov. 28. It is aimed at gathering the views of consumers andthe finance industry, particularly on how debt should be definedfor the purposes of the new laws, the finance ministry said.
In June, the FPC urged banks to issue no more than 15percent of mortgages at loan-to-income ratios above 4.5 times aborrower's income.
The FPC also said earlier this month that it wants the powerto impose limits on buy-to-let mortgages.
But the government said on Thursday that this would besubject to a separate consultation in 2015 aimed at "building anin-depth evidence base on how the operation of the UK buy-to-lethousing market may carry risks to financial stability".
The decision to push back the buy-to-let consultation meansit is unlikely that there will be sufficient time to enact anynew laws on that subject through before the 2015 election.
* For the government announcement, see https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-consultation-on-further-housing-market-powers-for-bank-of-england (Reporting by William James and David Milliken; Editing by TobyChopra)
