The number of homeowners at risk of losing their homes has risen by nearly a quarter in the past year.

Government data showed a total of 28,658 mortgage possession orders were made in England and Wales during the second quarter of this year, up 24 per cent from the same period a year ago.

The figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) relate to court activity which may not result in a possession.

As a result the figures are usually higher than those published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), which last week reported 18,900 UK repossessions, up 48 per cent on the same period last year.

The MoJ said there were 39,078 mortgage possession claims in the second quarter of 2008, an increase of 17 per cent on 2007 but unchanged on the first quarter.

The number of repossession claims reached a 15-year high at 137,591 last year and has continued to climb as the higher cost of mortgages hits homeowners following a series of interest rate rises last year.

In recent months homeowners have had to re-fix their mortgages at significantly higher mortgage rates after the cheap fixed loans they took out several years ago expired.

Lenders have also become increasingly risk-averse amid the credit crunch, with many people at the end of short-term deals finding it hard to remortgage and often forced on to their lender's more expensive standard variable rate.

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