Lenders urged to bin ERCs

The Mortgage Lender wants lenders to remove ERCs in a bid to cut home repossessions and to slash the £650m cost to the industry. David Titmuss, The Mortgage Lender managing director, says signs indicate home repossessions in 2007 will substantially rise over last year’s figure of 17,000. He says there will be four or five times as many repossessions this year as there was in 2004 (6,000) – perhaps surpassing the 29,990 recorded in 1999. "The share of household income a mortgage absorbs in 2007 is higher than in 2006, up from 15.1% to 17.3%, which means people are getting into arrears ...