Research report: England Repossession Risk Hotspots 2011/12
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.