debt relief order

Chancellor Alistair Darling will make his pre-budget statement today and announce a raft of measures which he believes will inject some life back into Britain’s slowing economy.

The pre-budget report, which is the Treasury’s opportunity to explain its policy for the forthcoming budget, is this year expected to feature a raft of taxation reforms, the most headline-grabbing being a reduction of 2.5% in the rate of VAT.

The number of properties being repossessed grew 12% in the third quarter of 2008, with 11,300 borrowers having their homes seized after failing to keep up with their repayments.

Problems with payments resulted in 29,516 repossession orders being made by courts in England and Wales whilst the report, released by the Council or Mortgage Lenders (CML), revealed that 168,000 mortgages were now in arrears – a rise of 8%. That figure looks almost certain to hit 170,000 before the end of 2008.