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Repossession and Mortgage Arrears

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his wonderful speech, which I am following closely. I am particularly grateful to him for mentioning the curse of negative equity. I want to highlight the fact that there are regional variations in the figures. There are real problems in areas such as the east midlands, where my constituency is located. The Fitch numbers that he mentioned show that 15 per cent. of home owners in the east midlands, and as many as 24 per cent. in the town of Northampton, are suffering negative equity. In many such constituencies, unemployment is now 80 or 100 per cent. higher than it was 12 years ago, so there is real pain and hardship in blackspots across the country.