Repossessions skyrocketed to 40,000 homes last year, up 54 per cent on the previous year, but 5,000 fewer than predicted. A family was thrown out of their home every 13 minutes because they failed to pay their mortgage.
The Financial Services Authority, the City watchdog, has published statistics showing that repossessions have jumped by more than a half. Whilst data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (C of ML) show that one in 290 homes with a mortgage has been repossessed.
A representative for the Tory Party warned that the accelerating number of repossessions was only the tip of a massive iceberg. However there was a slight glimmer of hope following a marginal fall in the number of properties taken over by lenders in the final quarter last year. Some 10,400 people lost their homes during the period, compared to 11,100 in the previous quarter. However the figure was still well up on the final quarter of the year before, when 6,900 homes were repossessed.
The C of ML said that the slower increase showed that lenders were making strenuous efforts to ensure repossession was a last resort. It added that, there had been a sharp increase in the number of cases where borrowers were handing back keys to their lenders, or abandoning properties.
New figures from the Ministry of Justice show 29,095 mortgage possession orders were made in England and Wales during the first three months of last year. This figure was just 14 per cent higher than the same period in the year before that, but similar to the previous quarter.
The economic crisis is getting dramatically worse with one in 53 homeowners being more than 3 months in arrears, according to the C of ML. One of the leading accountancy companies forecasts an 18 per cent rise in business insolvencies to 19,124 in 2009 compared with 16,168 during last year. These figures are particularly bad news as losing ones job is the precursor to losing ones home. Repossessions are expected to soar further during the present year as the recession takes its toll on the economy and jobs are lost.
A spokesperson from Shelter, the housing charity, says that the number of repossessions may appear to you and I as just numbers, but in fact they hide heartrending tales of actual people losing their homes. The attempts by the Government, to stem the tide of repossessions, has only scratched the surface of the problem, he said.
The C of ML predicts 75,000 people will lose their homes during this year. Some people have got so far behind with their mortgage repayments, that their arrears are 10 per cent of the total value of the mortgage.
The Department for Communities and Local Government has published figures, which indicate that the future outlook is bleak. The number of people on council house waiting lists rose to a record number of 1.8 million families, which is equal to 4.2 million people. The housing spokesman, accused the Government of sitting back whilst the housing waiting list exploded, but the Department rebuffed this criticism by saying that they were doing everything possible to assist homeowners.
An example of this assistance is the proposed Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme. This scheme will enable interest on a mortgage to be deferred for a maximum of 2 years on loans of 400,000 pounds or less.
Repossessions are rising because people cannot pay their
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