100 families a week face losing homes in Capital

Published on Wednesday 7 April 2010 10:12

MORE than 1,100 Edinburgh families have faced losing their homes over the past year, new figures have shown.

The figures today revealed that over the past 12 months, lenders and landlords began 1,194 actions against owners or tenants of properties in the Capital.

The majority were against homeowners who had fallen behind on their mortgage payments, and the figures have led to fears that many of those affected could end up homeless.

Homeless groups labelled the situation "shocking", but city leaders said they hoped the number would decline as the economy stabilised.

Councillor Paul Edie, the city's housing leader, said: "We are in the worst recession since around the 1930s so we would expect repossessions to go up. It is worrying that people are ending up at risk of being homeless.

"But I would hope that the figures will now fall. Repossessions are inextricably linked to unemployment and I would hope that, as unemployment falls, these figures will fall too."

He added: "If they are in the position that they are at risk of repossession they should get in touch with us to see how we can help. We would like to see people remain in their homes for as long as possible and we work hard on our homelessness strategy, which is largely about prevention."

Since April 2009, mortgage lenders, registered social landlords and private landlords have all been obliged to inform the relevant local authority when they initiate legal proceedings to repossess a property.

The city council said that it had been notified on 1,194 different occasions in the year to the end of March. However, it did not have figures for previous years, when it was not informed of actions.

Just over 60 per cent of actions were against homeowners, with around a quarter of the cases being against social housing tenants. The remainder related to tenants of private landlords or private-sector leasing firms.

Graeme Brown, the director of Shelter Scotland, the housing and homelessness charity, said: "These figures show that, shockingly, 120 households in Edinburgh faced losing their home through repossession or eviction in February alone.

"Responsible landlords and lenders are notifying the council as required but many more may go unreported. The challenge for the council is to act early to stop those affected becoming homeless.

"With new protections for homeowners coming into force shortly, MSPs must do more for tenants as well, by making sure eviction of social tenants is only ever a last resort as part of the Housing Bill going through the Scottish Parliament."

Figures from the Scottish Courts Service suggest that the number of actual repossessions may be beginning to decline. In January 2009, 149 repossessions were granted in Edinburgh. But the figure fell to 136 in January 2010.