Research report: England Repossession Risk Hotspots 2011/12

By: Tristan Carlyon
Published: June 2012

Research report: England Repossession Risk Hotspots 2011/12

Summary

  • Rates of issued possession claims vary widely across the country – the highest rate (in Barking and Dagenham, 8.44 per 1,000) is almost eight times the lowest rate (West Dorset, 1.06 per 1,000).

  • Average rates of possession claims by region appear to show a pattern, with the highest rates of claims in the northern regions of England, and the lowest rates in the south.

  • However, this overall pattern masks a wide variation within regions; this is most pronounced in London, where the rate of possession claims in Barking and Dagenham (the highest in England at 8.44 per 1,000) is nearly six and a half times that in Kensington and Chelsea (1.3 per 1,000).

  • Mapping the results shows clustering of those local authorities with the highest rates of possession claims in the following areas:
    – Durham and Tyneside
    – A ‘red band’ stretching almost unbroken across northern England, from the Mersey to the Humber, with a spike extending south into Derbyshire
    – The West Midlands conurbation
    – Central England (Northampton, Wellingborough and Milton Keynes)
    – The Wash (South Holland, Peterborough, Fenland)
    – East London and the Thames Estuary.

  • Higher rates of possession claims are strongly associated with higher and increasing rates of unemployment:
    – The average rate of unemployment in the local authorities with the highest rates of possession claims is 10.4%, compared with 5.5% for those with the lowest rates of possession claims.
    – On average, unemployment has risen by 3.1 percentage points in the local authorities with the highest rates of possession claims, compared with a rise of 1.9 percentage points in those with the lowest rates of possession claims.