The number of homes being repossessed rose by 12% between July and September, while more people are still struggling to make their mortgage payments, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said yesterday.

The number of homes being repossessed rose by 12% between July and September, while more people are still struggling to make their mortgage payments, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said yesterday.

Figures from the CML revealed there were 11,300 homes repossessed in the third quarter of 2009, while analysts warned there would be worse to come.

The CML said it expected about 45,000 repossessions across the UK this year, the highest figure since 1995. Its quarterly report showed that 168,000 households were in arrears at the end of September, 8% higher than the 155,600 at the end of June.

The CML said that, "in a worsening economy", its forecast that 170,000 households would fall into mortgage arrears by the end of the year was likely to be exceeded.

The warning was echoed by economic consultancy IHS Global Insight, which predicted that repossessions would rise "substantially further" before the end of 2008 as a result of rising unemployment, higher debt levels, tight credit conditions and more people being faced with negative equity.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said the recent 1.5-point reduction in interest rates by the Bank of England was welcome but "insufficient" to help people threatened with losing their houses.

"The many people who had to stretch themselves to the absolute limit to get into the housing market in recent years are particularly vulnerable," he said.

Michael Coogan, director general of CML, said lenders would "look at every possible way of minimising repossessions", which is why the forecast number of repossessions remained unchanged.