Northern Rock is twice as likely to repossess homes as other banks, according to a charity.

Credit Action has criticised the bank for its "aggressive" attitude towards repossessions.

Around 19,000 homes were repossessed in the first half of this year by mortgage lenders and banks as a whole.

The charity said that the bank was not being flexible enough with customers who defaulted on their mortgage repayments.

Chris Tapp, Director of Credit Action said: "There's not a lot of flexibility being shown by Northern Rock. They are also not giving people a lot of time, they seem to be moving for repossession quite quickly as a resort."

He added: "They are being quite aggressive in terms of their use of the courts in going for repossession, but for a lot of people they don't need to get to that point, if only Northern Rock would be more flexible with them in the first place."

Earlier this week the nationalised lender said it was "well ahead" of its Government loan repayment target, having paid back more than half the £26 billion owed, to leave £11.4 billion outstanding as of September 30.

Before running into funding problems last summer, Northern Rock was one of the UK's biggest and most aggressive mortgage providers, advancing loans worth as much as 125 per cent of home values.

But it was forced to turn to the Bank of England for emergency support after the money markets froze, leaving the group facing a funding crisis.

Northern Rock's nationalisation in February led to 1,500 job losses as it scaled back activity to pay back the Government.

The lender has been reducing the size of its mortgage book in order to pay back its Government borrowing.

Most of the repossessions were for properties secured with a "Together" mortgage, which allowed buyers to borrow up to 125 per cent of the property's value.

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