British borrowers could face ‘extremely tough year’

Borrowers from across the UK could face an “extremely tough year” financially in 2008, it has been asserted.

Paul Fletcher, director of the Repossessions Advice Centre, suggests that thousands of homeowners will be faced with serious debt management concerns when their fixed-rate mortgage arrangements end and they need a new borrowing deal.

In fact, many people could find themselves facing as much as a 65 per cent increase in their monthly mortgage costs and others will be unable to secure a new home loan deal altogether, according to Mr Fletcher.

“I think it’s going to be an extremely tough year and I certainly think we’ll see quite a large increase in repossessions over that period of time,” he said.

“And it is the clients who are with the sub-prime lenders who are going to be suffering.”

The Council of Mortgage Lenders reported that debt management woes had seen 14,000 homes repossessed in the UK in the first half of this year.