Creak, creak, groan... repossessions

Been building up a while, this one:

A rise of 66 per cent in repossession orders against home buyers across the country was disclosed yesterday. Londoners were hit even harder, with an 81 per cent increase.

Aside from the personal hardship caused, this is a good indicator that current levels of personal debt are increasingly unsustainable - which, given the reliance of the Brown economy on happy debt-led consumers, ought to be causing sleepless nights for the esteemed Chancellor, too.