Court actions for home repossessions have hit a six-year high as interest rates make mortgage payments harder to meet. The Department for Constitutional Affairs said there were 20,667 new mortgage possession actions in the fourth quarter of last year, up 15% from the year before. Only a limited number of these actions progress to full repossession, and Council of Mortgage Lenders figures showed a slight dip in these in the second half of the year. There were also signs that interest rate rises have damaged homeowners’ ability to pay their mortgages. Homeowners in short-term arrears rose to 53,960 in the second half of the year from 49,720 in the first.