These include:

• Extending free face-to-face debt advice services;

• Tightening the rules so lenders must show greater tolerance and understanding to those in arrears, and must prove they have exhausted every possible option before seeking repossession

• Help with mortgage interest payments through schemes including Homeowner Mortgage Support and the Support for Mortgage Interest scheme; and

• For the most vulnerable families, the backstop Mortgage Rescue Scheme.

Repossession Hot Spots

According to the government, the following 86 repossession hotspots have been identified as being at greater risk due to higher levels of unemployment and repossession court orders:

• Basildon
• Bolsover
• Broxbourne
• Bury
• Coventry
• Darlington
• Dartford
• Dudley
• Enfield
• Erewash
• Gateshead
• Gloucester
• Gravesham
• Harlow
• Ipswich
• Kirklees
• Lambeth
• Leeds
• Leicester
• Mansfield
• Medway
• Milton Keynes
• NE Lincolnshire
• Redbridge
• Slough
• Southend-on-sea
• Stevenage
• Thanet
• Wakefield
• West Lancashire
• Barking and Dagenham
• Corby
• Knowsley
• Salford
• Newham
• Walsall
• Redditch
• Halton
• Sandwell
• Wolverhampton
• Nottingham
• Birmingham
• Manchester
• Bolton
• Liverpool
• Sunderland
• Reading
• Wigan
• Swindon
• Northampton
• Kingston-upon-Hull
• Cannock Chase
• Barnsley
• Derwentside
• Doncaster
• Easington
• Luton
• Middlesbrough
• North Lincolnshire
• Nuneaton and Bedworth
• Oldham
• Peterborough
• Rochdale
• Rotherham
• Sedgefield
• South Tyneside
• Stockton-on-Tees
• Stoke-on-Trent
• Tameside
• Tamworth
• Wear Valley
• Wellingborough
• Ashfield
• Blackburn with Darwen
• Blackpool
• Blyth Valley
• Bradford
• Burnley
• Chester-le-Street
• Croydon
• Greenwich
• Lewisham
• Rossendale
• South Holland
• Thurrock
• Waltham Forest

In summary, the largest percentage fall was in the West Midlands, where repossessions fell by 40% compared to the same period in 2008.  Meanwhile, the greatest number of repossessions per households occurred in Wales, where 1.4 properties out of every 1,000 were repossessed in the quarter, although this figure does represent a 34% fall when compared last year.

The figures below represent:

1. Total number of repossessions for the period
2. Percentage rise or fall on Q3 2008
3. Number of repossessions per 1,000 households

• Total England & Wales: 24,938; down 34%; 1.1
• England only: 23,205; down 34%; 1.1

Regional Break Down

• North East: 1,465; down 34% ; 1.3
• North West: 3,875; down 37%; 1.3
• Yorkshire and the Humber: 2,830; down 29%; 1.3
• East Midlands: 2,155; down 33%; 1.2
• West Midlands: 2,480; down 40%; 1.1
• East: 2,360; down 31%; 1.0
• London: 3,425; down 36%; 1.1
• South East: 2,925; down 34%; 0.8
• South West: 1,700; down 32%; 0.8
• Wales: 1,710; down 34%; 1.4

For even greater regional breakdown of repossession figures for the quarter, click on the relevant region above.

The most recent Allsop auction took place on December 15^th and 17^th 2009 and saw 415 lots offered for sale, a drop of 62% on the same time last year when Allsop were offering 1,100 properties for sale at auction.

This dramatic difference illustrates what is happening in the repossessed property market, which can by summarized as follows:

• Levels of repossession sales at auction peaked in Q4 of 2008 but have fallen sharply since
• Volume of residential auction sales as a proportion of all recorded sales rose from 1.2% to 4.7% in Q4 of 2008 but has since dropped back to 4.1%
• There has been a sharp fall in buy-to-let buyers, with 86% of purchasers at Allsop residential sales buying as private investors

This fall off in sales of repossessed properties can, in part, be explained by the increasing pressure placed on lenders by the government to assist owner-occupier borrowers to avoid the ultimate sanction of repossession.  Increased politicisation of the largest lenders became inevitable as they merged with the Lloyds Banking Group, and ultimately became 43% state owned.  And, of course, Northern Rock had already been nationalised.  As is the way of the world, state owned organisations are politically driven rather than commercially motivated.

2009 Government Measures to Support those at Risk of Repossession

• £200m mortgage rescue scheme targeted at the most vulnerable households on incomes of £60,000 or less a year who are entitled to be re-housed under homelessness legislation. Eligible households apply to their local authority either to sell an equity share or the entire interest in their home to a housing association and remain in occupation at a rent.
• On January 5 2009, changes came into effect on Income Support for Mortgage Interest (ISMI), cutting from 39 to 13 weeks – the time before homeowners who lose their jobs receive financial help with the interest payments on their mortgage. This is only available to homeowners who have an outstanding mortgage of less than £200,000.
• The Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme (introduced in April ‘09) allows households which suffer an income shock to defer part of their payments for up to two years.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the foregoing means that levels of repossession are falling.  You would be wrong.  Although the number of repossessions forecast for 2009 has been reduced from 75,000 to 65,000, the number of repossessions recorded by the Council of Mortgage Lenders continues to rise. What has fallen dramatically is the proportion of these properties offered at auction. Experts predict, however, that 425,000 borrowers are likely to end 2009 more than three months in arrears with their mortgage repayments.

So, could we see a return to the previous trend of auction houses being the place to go looking for investment properties?  It’s a case of watch this space.  The next Allsop residential property auction takes place on 9th and 11th February, 2010.

From life experience in the UK I know the media love to create drama as it sells newspapers.

We are sure that you have already been supplied with a wealth of information about house repossession being on the increase in the UK. So you probably already have made up your mind whether the average person needs to be worried about house repossession.

Recently I found a great video interview from the BBC which gives facts about house repossession in the UK.

Please watch this house repossession video and let us know whether the house repossession hype is really justified or are the media fueling our fears in relation to loosing our homes?

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Financial Services Authority said 11,054 homes were repossessed in the three months to the end of June, compared with just 6,476 during the same three months of 2007.

The regulator said the number of repossessions had been growing “significantly” since the third quarter of last year, as increasing numbers of homeowners struggled to clear arrears they had built up.

The FSA defines a repossession as an arrears case where the lender has been formally granted a possession order by a court and is then able to sell the underlying property against which the loan has been secured.

The average home is now worth £168,814, having dropped 2.2 per cent in September.

The fall left the annual rate of decline for the year to the end of September at 8 per cent, nearly double the 4.6 per cent slide announced in August, which at the time was the biggest annual drop recorded since the series began in 2001.

The latest Land Registry figures are not as steep as those reported by the Nationwide and Halifax, which showed falls of 10.5 per cent and 12.7 per cent respectively. This is because the Land Registry bases its calculations on when transactions are completed.

September was the 13th month in a row that the annual rate of house price growth declined, as the credit crunch continued to squeeze the property market.

All regions of England and Wales recorded price falls on both a monthly and an annual basis. Wales saw the biggest slide, with prices diving by 5.5 per cent during the month, making it the only region to have seen double digit annual falls of 10.7 per cent.

The South West, South East, North East and East Midlands all recorded house price drops of more than 2 per cent in September. Yorkshire and the Humber saw the smallest reduction, but even here properties still lost 1.2 per cent of their value during the month.

On an annual basis, the East Midlands and South West have seen the biggest price slides after Wales, with falls of 9.9 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively.

London has seen the smallest year-on-year decline at 6.1 per cent, followed by the North West at 6.3 per cent.

By Myra Butterworth, Personal Finance Correspondent
Last Updated: 4:00PM GMT 28 Oct 2008 Telegraph.co.uk