BRITAIN soaring debt crisis was thrown into the spotlight yesterday following revelations that house repossessions were on the up.

Council of Mortgage Lenders s(CML) data revealed that 6,400 repossessions took place in the first quarter of 2014, a 4.9 per cent increase compared with the fourth quarter of 2013.

And further evidence of a cost-of-living crisis emerged from a Children’s Society survey released yesterday.

More than a million families are struggling with “problem” debt with nearly three million extra households containing dependent children on the brink of sliding into financial difficulties, according to the charity.

The news comes as the Halifax announced that house prices increased 8.5 per cent year-on-year in April, while mortgage costs were showing signs of edging up despite the Bank of England base rate remaining unchanged from its historic low.

Concerns have been growing that the sharp pace of house price growth in some areas could encourage some people to try and stretch their borrowing. 

In response to borrowing worries a deluded Housing Minister Kris Hopkins announced that repossessions were falling year on year thanks to Tory policies.

Mr Hopkins claimed: “Official government statistics shows repossessions claims are falling and in the last quarter were the lowest in over a decade. 

“This has only been achieved because of this government’s long-term economic plan to fix the broken housing market and tackle the record deficit we inherited.”

But Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said the Tories were disguising their failure to help ordinary people with bluster.

He said: “The government talks about economic recovery, but the rise in the number of people losing their homes because they cannot afford their mortgage repayments, paints a very different picture. 

“Every home repossessed is the tragic loss of a families dream of a secure future. Rising costs are pricing more and more people out of the housing market altogether and rents are increasingly unaffordable.

“People are struggling because of a lack of job security and because pay has not kept up with inflation, let alone the increase in housing costs.”

Mr Prentis said the government should take action by increasing the supply of affordable rentable homes “with a national house building programme delivered by councils and housing associations.”