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Up to 75,000 families will lose their homes next year in repossession crisis - Daily mail

More than 200 homes will be repossessed every day next year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders warned yesterday.

The toll will be three times as high as this year and within a whisker of the worst ever recorded in Britain. The forecast highlights the speed with which the economic meltdown is surging through family finances.

Last year, 26,200 mortgage-holders were evicted for falling behind with payments. Next year, 75,000 will be hit, a rise of nearly 200 per cent.

The wave of repossessions is likely to be accompanied by increases in divorce and cases of depression, as well as a chronic disruption of children's lives. Many of the victims will be people whose jobs have been swept away by the recession.

There are fears many people will be left homeless, after the Local Government Association warned that the council housing waiting list will reach five million by 2010.

Rising repossessions will be an explosive issue for Labour, particularly if the victims are customers of banks which have been given billions of taxpayers' money.

In a further blow, the CML said the number of repossessions was just the tip of the iceberg. A record 500,000 more people were in the 'last chance saloon' over their mortgage payments.