THE number of borrowers in mortgage arrears climbed 7 per cent in the past three months to 81,900.
It raises fears that home repossessions will increase, amid families’ ongoing cost-of-living challenges.
Banking body UK Finance warned: “Higher mortgage rates and the cost of living have continued to weigh on households.”
The 81,900 homeowners were in arrears of 2.5 per cent or more of their outstanding balance.
Of those, 28,690 owed more than 10 per cent of their mortgage balance, putting them particularly at risk of defaulting on their loan.
That figure was up 2 per cent on the previous three months.
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Some 610 homeowner-mortgaged properties were repossessed in the second quarter of 2023, down a fifth on the previous quarter.
UK Finance said the number of homeowner and buy-to-let repossessions remains close to historic lows, but is “expected to continue to rise in line with our mortgage market forecast”.
Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed that across England and Wales there were 3,986 mortgage repossession claims between April and June, a 15 per cent increase on the same period last year.
Polly Neate, of Shelter, said: “With private rents reaching record highs and no-fault evictions continuing to rise, hundreds of families risk being thrown into homelessness every day.”
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A Government spokesperson said: “Home-repossession is always a last resort and only a minority of evictions end up in the courts. Overall repossessions remain below pre-pandemic numbers.”
UK Finance said only 1 per cent of homeowners are behind on their payments.
Some lenders are beginning to reduce fixed rates on new mortgages.
Wilt Disney
WALT Disney is hiking the cost of seeing series such as The Mandalorian and films including its live-action The Little Mermaid.
The entertainment giant has had a larger-than-expected drop in subscriber numbers and made a £361million loss for the three months to July.
Its basic ad-free subscription will rise from £7.99 to £10.99 a month from November 1.
There will be a £4.99 version with adverts.
Deliveroo cuts loss by a half
ORDERS fell 6 per cent at food delivery firm Deliveroo as consumers cut back on non-essential spending.
But revenues still climbed by 5 per cent to £1billion.
Higher prices and increased grocery demand helped the business to nearly halve losses from £154million to £83million.
The average cost of consumers’ orders jumped by 10 per cent to £24.20 from £22.10, the company said.
The business said it was developing fresh options for consumers after rolling out premium delivery where people can pay to have their order prioritised.
It also introduced an option to top-up with groceries.
Founder Will Shu said the firm had cut costs while launching “improvements to our proposition for consumers, riders and merchants”.
However, he has faced protests from riders over conditions and pay this year.
Entain in £585m rap
ENTAIN, the owner of Coral and Ladbrokes bookmakers, has set aside £585million to cover the cost of a massive potential penalty after a Bribery Act investigation into one of its Turkish businesses.
It said it has acted while continuing negotiations with the Crown Prosecution Service following a four-year inquiry.
Entain sold the Turkish subsidiary in 2017, before the investigation started.
Shares fell 2.2 per cent when the stock market opened yesterday.
Times are tough
WATCHES OF SWITZERLAND admits the luxury market is not “totally immune” to the cost-of-living crisis.
The Rolex-seller reported an 8 per cent sales dip in the last three months.
Globally, luxury watch sales slipped 2 per cent and luxury jewellery sales fell by 15 per cent.
Capri in the bag
LUXURY fashion firm Tapestry has splashed out £6.7billion to buy rival Capri Holdings.
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It saw shares in Capri, owner of Versace, Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo, soar 56 per cent.
The combined business will have global sales of more than £9billion a year.
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