It seems the nerve which Housing Minister, John Healey, touched last week is still incredibly raw for many.
So fuel the fire even more, news this week from the Council of Mortgage Lenders states 46,000 homes were repossessed in 2009 – a 15% increase on the year before.
When working out the maths, that means last year there were around 400 repossessions each month – 20 every day. That’s 20 livelihoods packed up in to cardboard boxes because their debt had caught up with them too late in the day.
So what does 2010 really hold for us? Well, if it’s up to John Healey, we’ll probably be seeing even more increases!
As people adapt to our status as officially out of the recession, I fear, even more bad luck is yet to come – particularly for those who still haven’t realised the weight of their debt. Even if we’re lucky enough to experience a 5% decrease of repossessions this year, that still means 13 people every day will loose their homes. And in many cases, we’re not talking individuals – we’re talking about families – we’re talking about children.
So Mr Healey, still in favour of increasing repossessions and using them as a wake up call for people in debt, or have you had time to sober up your thoughts and think about how we can help people keep their homes, rather than rushing to boot them out?!
