 THE SNP claimed repossession decrees rose by over a third |
Nationalists have claimed that irresponsible lending has led to a massive increase in repossession decrees handed out by Scottish courts. Kenny MacAskill said greater powers on the regulation of debt were needed.
The SNP MSP also claimed the forthcoming bankruptcy bill would compound the problem if creditors were able to apply for property rights.
The Scottish Executive said the SNP had misinterpreted the figures and could not prove a rise in repossessions.
The SNP claimed figures, obtained from the Scottish Executive, showed that 6,285 repossession decrees were handed out by courts in 2005, an increase of over a third from the previous year.
Mr MacAskill said much of the rise was due to a boom in "equity lending" to vulnerable borrowers, where homes were used as security for other loans and "extortionate" rates of interest were charged.
 |  It is no longer viable for Holyrood to be content with picking up the social pieces of debt and household repossessions |
He said: "This huge increase in the number of repossession orders granted means that there is much to be done before we can get on top of this problem.
"But the Scottish Parliament has no power to combat the root causes of this debt epidemic.
"It is no longer viable for Holyrood to be content with picking up the social pieces of debt and household repossessions."
However, and executive spokeswoman said the figures used by the SNP were not repossession decrees or actual repossessions.
She said the figures related to Land/Heritable and Mortgage Lender actions which might involve things like evicting tenants for reasons of non-payment of rent and anti-social behaviour, or the division and sale of common property.
'Preventing homelessness'
She added: "We are working on a number of fronts to increase financial awareness and provide assistance to those in debt or facing bankruptcy.
"We have funded over 170 extra money advisors, we part-fund the UK National Debtline, and we are working with the DTI to introduce fairer credit schemes.
"Our bankruptcy bill is designed to strike the right balance between effective recovery for creditors and effective protection for debtors against undue hardship."
In addition, she said the Homelessness Act 2003 would bring in measures later this year to ensure local councils were informed when landlords of creditors were proceeding with repossession with a view to preventing homelessness where possible.
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 