The number of people losing their homes through repossessions leapt by almost half during the first six months of this year to its highest level for 12 years, it emerged yesterday.

A total of 18,900 homeowners suffered the seizure of their properties during the first half after failing to keep up mortgage payments, marking a rise of 48 per cent from 12,800 in the same period last year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders revealed.

The surge in repossessions sparked new warnings that many thousands more are set to lose their homes as the economic downturn deepens, more fall behind with repayments and lenders become more aggressive in acting against those who sink into arrears.

The clearest evidence yet emerged yesterday of banks and other lenders resorting more rapidly to repossessing properties of borrowers who find themselves in dire financial straits and unable to maintain repayments.

Twenty-eight per cent of borrowers who are six months or more in arrears faced repossession in the first half yet four years ago only about a tenth of those that far behind would already have lost their homes, the CML's figures showed.

Confirmation that some lenders have become much tougher came just days after the Financial Services Authority fired a warning shot at institutions that it said were too quick to take court action to repossess homes.

The FSA criticised in particular some specialist lenders that have loaned money to buy-to-let speculators and to less well-off sub-prime homebuyers with stretched finances. It is likely to be these people who are being hit hardest.

Fears that the repossession net will now spread rapidly were fuelled as the CML also reported steep increases in numbers of people falling behind with their mortgages.

Home loans in arrears by at least three months jumped by a fifth to 155,600 in the first half, compared with the previous six months.

The numbers of homebuyers in more serious trouble and three to six months behind on payments also rose by a fifth to 75,000, while those six to 12 months in arrears rose on a similar scale, to reach 42,000.

The CML has predicted that 45,000 homes are likely to be seized from cash-strapped borrowers over this year as a whole, up from 26,200 last year.

Yet while the lenders' body conceded that, at 0.16 per cent of all mortgaged properties, the rate of repossessions was now the highest for a decade, it sought to emphasise that this remained less than half the 0.36 per cent peak reached in the housing crash of the early Nineties.

Housing charities stepped up pressure on the Government to intervene, describing the latest figures as shocking and urged ministers to act to help homeowners to keep a roof over their families' heads.

Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, said that repossession should only be used by lenders as a “last resort”.