Home repossessions rate set to rise

The Ministry of Justice is publishing figures showing how many court actions for home repossessions were made in England and Wales during the third quarter of the year.

The figures come just days after the Council of Mortgage Lenders predicted there would be a 50% jump in repossessions next year to 45,000.

It attributed the rise to a combination of the five interest rate rises seen since August last year and lenders tightening their lending policies as a result of the global credit crunch. It also estimated that repossessions this year would climb by 32% to 30,000.

The latest figures are unlikely to show the impact of the 'credit crunch', but commentators are still expecting there to be a rise in repossession orders. However Mark Sands, director of personal insolvency at KPMG, said the increase was unlikely to be "dramatic".

In August the Ministry of Justice said a total of 21,514 repossession orders were made during the second quarter of the year, down 4% on the previous three months and 3% below the same period a year earlier.

But insolvency figures, also due to be released today, are expected to show a slight decrease in the number of people being declared bankrupt or taking out an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) during the three months to the end of September.

Mr Sands predicts the total number of personal insolvencies will be around 27,000, broadly flat compared with the previous quarter and down slightly on the third quarter of 2006, - the first drop year-on-year for five years.

He said: "But it hides the truth that we will face over the coming 12 months that there are all sorts of pressures on consumers that will build up."

He said recent interest rate rises still had not impacted on a lot of people with fixed-rate mortgages, while tightening credit conditions meant that consumers who had previously relied on increased borrowing were likely to face problems getting new credit.