§ Mr. WinnickTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many households defaulted on mortgage repayments in the latest available month; and if he will give the figures for the same period in 1986, 1987 and 1988.
§ Mr. Chope[holding answer 6 November 1989]: The available information about mortgage arrears relates only to mortgages advanced by building societies and local authorities. The Building Societies Association records numbers of arrears relating to building society mortgages on a half-yearly basis. The latest information is for June 1989 and is compared with the figures for earlier years in the following table.
Building society mortgage arrears: united Kingdom Loans over 6 months in arrears June Number Per cent. 1986 66,980 0.97 1987 63,150 0.88 1988 57,880 0.79 1989 54,360 0.71 My Department collects annual information on arrears in respect of mortgages made by local authorities. The information for recent years is shown in the following table.
Local authority mortgage arrears: England Loans over 6 months in arrears March Number Per cent. 1986 15,840 3.1 1987 13,200 3.1 1988 9,040 2.5 1989 7,760 2.5