Repossession Orders: Hertfordshire

Mike Penning
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many domestic properties in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire have been repossessed in the last five years.

Mr. Iain Wright
There are two independent sources of data on actual numbers of mortgage possessions: the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA). However both are only available for the United Kingdom as a whole.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders latest press release on this is on their website at:

http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/media/press/2108

The CML data on repossessions are no longer freely available from their website. For detailed time series information members of the public can request to subscribe to CML to obtain access to a restricted website.

The Financial Services Authority data are available on their website at:

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Returns/IRR/statistics/

The CML and FSA release slightly different figures. The CML data are for repossessions on first-charge mortgages only, including Buy-to-Let mortgages, as issued by their members. CML estimate that their lenders currently account for 98 per cent. of mortgage lending. The FSA data, as well as covering possessions on first-charge mortgages, cover possessions on second-charge loans by regulated firms (many second charge lenders are not regulated) but do not cover possessions as comprehensively on Buy-to-Let mortgages, as some of these are from unregulated firms. The overall effect of the differences is that the FSA's statistics on possessions are slightly higher.