The Scottish Government

Repossessions in the UK rose to 40,000 in 2008 from 26,200 in 2007 and are forecast to reach 65,000 in 2009. ¹ In light of this increase, the Scottish Government established a Repossessions Group to consider how homeowners can be best protected in light of the economic downturn. The group's final report was published in June 2009.

Repossessions Group

The Repossessions Group was a sub-group of the Debt Action Forum which considered measures to alleviate personal debt problems. Membership of the group included representatives of the legal system, lenders, advice agencies and consumer interests. It was independently chaired by Adrian Stalker.

Remit

The remit of the group was:

1. to consider urgently whether the legal protection for homeowners in Scotland at risk of repossession, provided through UK legislation and in Scotland through such vehicles as the Mortgage Rights (Scotland) Act 2001 and the Conveyancing and Feudal Reform (Scotland) Act 1970, is adequate and if necessary make specific recommendations on ways in which either reserved or devolved legislation should be strengthened; and
2. to consider what else the Scottish Government, the UK Government and others such as lenders, advice agencies and legal services might do to help those at risk of repossession and reduce the risk of repossessions.

Minutes and Report

Minutes from the group's meetings are available below:

• 11 February 2009
• 4 March 2009
• 1 April 2009
• 22 April 2009
• 13 May 2009

Information available under Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

In June 2009 the Scottish Government received a request for copies of all correspondence between the housing and homelessness charity Shelter and Scottish Government Ministers and their officials which relate to or mention repossessions since May 2007.

The Scottish Government handled the request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and provided information that was requested. Because of the large number of individual items, it has produced a CD of the documents released. This is available by contacting the Housing Support Team.

1 _{^{Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders. There are no separate Scottish figures available.}}