25 June 2025

Equity Release Council responds to FCA announcement on Public Discussion – Mortgage Rule Review: the future of the mortgage market

Jim Boyd, CEO of the Equity Release Council said:

“Today the FCA launched its public discussion looking at lending into later life which is critical for the sector, the Government and the Country. 

The discussion paper recognises that mortgage products targeted at older borrowers, whether lifetime, retirement interest-only or other forms of mortgage are increasingly mainstream. Two in five UK residents are already over 50 years old and in 15 years’ time half of UK households are anticipated to need to use housing wealth to support their spending needs in later life.

To help people better navigate their financial lives, we need to ensure that people understand their options and have the products and protections in place to make confident choices. Reflecting this, today’s announcement invites views about how advice qualifications might evolve to enable ‘enhanced advice’ to support consumers make informed decisions.

While we have seen significant innovation over the last five years, the announcement encourages the industry to continue to challenge itself to adapt to support a broader range of customers who have different needs and aspirations.  The Equity Release Council looks forward to engaging with the FCA public discussion and helping members to make their voices heard as part of this important debate.

Not only does this discussion have the potential to benefit older borrowers but also younger consumers as typically one in four releases involves some gifting to family, usually to help children onto the housing ladder as first-time buyers, or to pay off debt.

The growth of the later life lending market can also act as a real economic stimulus, which is an important feature of government policy, supporting businesses by the spending power of our rapidly ageing population. 45,000 UK jobs are already directly funded through money released from bricks and mortar – the growth of later life lending can potentially take this to another level, with £21 billion in today’s money, estimated to be released every year by 2040. This is equivalent to 0.7% of GDP, which will be significant for the UK economy’. 

Data from