Fewer Britons expected to lose homes this year

The number of repossessions forecast for this year has been reduced to 48,000
by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), who last year predicted that
75,000 people would lose their homes in 2009.

In the last three months, there have been 11,700 repossessions, up slightly
from 11,400 in the second three months of the year, but 8 per cent lower
than between January and March. However, the figure is still 5 per cent
higher than for the same period last year.

In June, the CML revised their forecast for the year down to 65,000
repossessions – a figure last seen in 1992 during the previous UK recession.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice released today also show that the number
of repossessions dropped, down by 7 per cent in the three months to October
to 24,337, compared with the previous quarter and fell 37 per cent on the
comparable three months of 2008.

Michael Coogan, the director general of the CML, said: "Low interest
rates and lenders' forbearance policies have helped to cushion many
households facing financial problems. And although the economy is not out of
the woods yet, we no longer expect a dramatic rise in properties being taken
into possession unless interest rates rise from the low levels that most
commentators now expect to persist for some time.”

The Government has launched several initiatives to help struggling homeowners,
including the Mortgage Rescue Scheme, under which people can sell some or
all of their home to a social landlord and rent it back, as well as the
Homeowner Mortgage Support scheme, which enables people to defer paying
interest on up to 70 per cent of their mortgage for up to two years.

It also introduced rules in November last year, allowing courts to grant a
reposession order only if all alternative measures to keep people in their
homes had failed.

The Mortgage Rescue Scheme was criticised earlier this year when it was
revealed that it had helped only 14 families by the end of June.

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