A recent statement by housing charity Shelter stated that the number of people contacting them looking for help with mortgage problems has increased eightfold in the past year.

Shelter said more than 80,000 people contacted them for help after running into difficulty with their mortgage payments in 2007, compared with 10,000 in 2006.

?An increasing number of people are losing their homes due to a combination of rising interest rates, an increase in the cost of household bills and irresponsible lending strategies by mortgage lenders?, said the charity.

These factors have also led to a huge increase in the number of repossession orders being issued by the courts and this continued rise shows no signs of slowing down.

It called on the Government and lenders to set up a free advice line for people who are in mortgage arrears or facing having their home repossessed.

The call for an advice line came on the back of a report by City watchdog the Financial Services Authority which said that more than one million mortgages were a ?cause for concern? due to their risky lending characteristics.

The FSA said that these characteristics included people being asked for lower deposits, being lent higher salary multiples and taking out a mortgage for longer than 25 years.

In the same week, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said that they expected around 123 homes to be repossessed every day during 2008, equivalent to 45,000 annually.

The Chief Executive of Shelter Adam Sampson said ?Shelter has seen a massive increase in people coming to us with mortgage problems, and with repossessions set to rise dramatically throughout 2008, we simply haven?t got the resources to cope?

?The Government, mortgage lenders and the FSA must take responsibility and start repairing the broken state safety net to ensure that if people face difficulty, there is protection in place and somewhere to turn to for advice.?

The group also called for the FSA to clamp down on irresponsible lenders who are too quick to repossess properties, after advancing unaffordable mortgages to consumers, when they fall into arrears.

Shelter went on to say that they would continue to provide advice online, or via a telephone helpline, for those people in the early stages of financial difficulty or having trouble keeping up with their mortgage payments.

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