asked Her Majesty's Government:How many families are now homeless because of mortgage arrears and subsequent repossession by building societies compared with the previous year, to the last convenient dates.

In October 1986 to September 1987, of the households for whom local authorities accepted responsibility to secure accommodation under the homelessness provisions of Housing Acts, an estimated 11,200 in Great Britain were attributed principally to mortgage default or arrears: the corresponding figure in the previous 12 months was 10,600. It is not known in how many of these cases the lender involved was a building society or whether repossession had actually taken place.