Britons 'looking at alternate ways of avoiding repossession'

As many as one million Britons have paid their mortgage or rent bills on credit cards in order to avoid serious financial difficulty, according to new research.

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter has revealed that six per cent of Britons have attempted to put off payment in this way over the course of the last 12 months.

A series of interest rate rises that began in August 2006 coupled with this summer's credit crunch have caused such trends to accelerate, the charity added, with the problem likely to continue to get worse as costs keep rising.

"For many people trying to keep a roof over their head desperation is driving them to short-term, high-cost borrowing," cautioned Adam Sampson, chief executive at Shelter.

"Ordinary people are being forced to seek more risky and expensive ways to stave off the threat of eviction and repossession," Mr Sampson added.

The UK's cumulative personal debt now totals more than £1 trillion, Datamonitor revealed last month.

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