New figures from the Council of Mortgage lenders make uneasy reading for mortgage payers struggling to make ends meet, with a 21% rise in house repossessions last year compared to 2006. In all, 27,100 homes were seized, up from 22,400 the previous year.

The total isn’t as high as widely predicted, but is still the highest this century, and is striking when compared to the figure of 8,500 in 2003.

Parallel figures showed that the number of mortgages in arrears rose by 8.6% between 2006 and 2007, a clear pointer that further woe may in store - especially considering that more than a million people will shortly face a leap in their payments with the end of their fixed rate mortgages and the current difficulties surrounding obtaining cheap credit.

Despite the pessimism, the figures still need to be put in perspective - in the early 1990s, during the days of widespread negative equity, the number of repossessions peaked at a whopping 75,500 per year.

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