New Figures Show 760 Stockport Homes Reposed

12.21.53pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 3rd Mar 2008

Stockport and Greater Manchester have suffered huge increases in home repossessions over the last 12 months, it has been revealed.

New figures released by the Department for Justice show a large upturn in the number of court orders issued for repossession in the past year, with 766 Stockport families put on the street.

Now local MP Andrew Stunell is leading the call for action.

"The Government has failed to address the root causes of home repossessions, and they haven't put back the safety net the Tories took away 15 years ago.

"Over the last ten years Labour's credit culture has led to people being unable to keep up with mortgage repayments and being turfed out of their homes. Meanwhile the number of people on waiting lists for social housing has gone up by 50%".

Mr Stunell is leading a call at his Part Conference this week for a million new homes to be built. "We can't leave children without a roof over their heads or local people unable to support themselves. We need to build enough homes to meet people's needs.

"Liberal Democrats plan to provide better, greener, more affordable housing for those who need it, giving local people and families the chance to get on the property ladder and stay there. We need homes for all, right now".

According to Mr Stunell Stockport's repossession rate has risen in part because of Tory changes to benefit rules meaning mortgage payments are no longer covered when job losses strike.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Figures for home repossessions were released by the Department for Justice on 8th February, 2008. The figures can be found here: <http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/stats-mort-landlord-tab2-q4.xls>.

In 2007 Stockport saw a rise of 4% (to 766) in court orders leading to repossession. Greater Manchester saw an overall rise of 14% to 8, 973.

Andrew Stunell MP will introduce his housing paper, Homes for All, at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference on 7th-9th March.

Homes for All sets out plans to build 2.3 million homes nationally by 2018, an increase of 1 million on existing targets, half of which will be social homes for rent, with a vast improvement in environmental standards.

For further information on Homes for All, contact Zoe Horwich, Parliamentary Researcher to Andrew Stunell MP, at horwichz@parliament.uk, or on 020 7219 5223.