THE pain of recession eased a little yesterday, with a surprise fall in the number of families on the brink of losing their homes across the region.

County courts reported 3,005 repossession orders against householders unable to pay their mortgage bills in the first three months of this year, a 30 per cent fall on a year earlier.

The decline in seizure orders was even sharper in some areas – including in Hartlepool (54 per cent), York (49 per cent), Bishop Auckland (33 per cent) and Teesside (32 per cent).

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said it was likely to drop its prediction that house repossessions this year would match the dreadful tally during the last recession of the early Nineties.

The CML had suggested that 75,000 homes would be seized this year – a figure it now described as pessimistic.

The group reported that the number of homes repossessed rose to 12,800 in the first three months of the year, up 50 per cent on last year.

Housing Minister Margaret Beckett said the Government’s instruction to lenders to “give borrowers more breathing space” was having an impact.

A system has been introduced in which courts grant a repossession order only if all alternatives to keep people in their home have failed.

Many hard-pressed borrowers have also benefited from unprecedented cuts in interest rates, which are down from five per cent last October to 0.5 per cent.

However, the repossession figures were still described as “pretty ugly” by Chris Tapp, director of debt charity Credit Action.

And housing charity Shelter accused sub-prime lenders, who specialise in offering mortgages to borrowers with poor credit histories, of failing to comply with the Government’s call to show patience with families in trouble.

Chief executive Sam Younger said: “These figures paint a very depressing picture of thousands of homeowners across the country struggling to keep up with their mortgage repayments, with many more losing the roof over their head.

“There have been moves to help struggling homeowners, but some lenders are clearly still not doing everything that they can to keep people in their homes.”

A court order for possession of a home does not necessarily mean that a family will lose its property, because the borrower can make a plea for the lender to alter payments.

Figures for homes hit with a possession claim – the first stage of threatened action – also showed a fall across the North-East and North Yorkshire – a 38 per cent decline to 1,399 over three months.

Mrs Beckett said: “While this is no time for complacency, the action we have taken, together with the work of lenders to give borrowers more breathing space to help them find a solution, is having an impact on repossession numbers.”