I WAS heartened to read in the Bury Times (Feb 9) that, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the number of properties repossessed by mortgage lenders in 2000 was the lowest since 1989.

How different from the situation that existed under the previous Conservative Government. Interest rates hit 15 per cent during one particularly bad year, one million people suffered from negative equity and 100,000 homes were repossessed.

Quite clearly the economy is in much better shape under the present Government and the misery of people being evicted from their own homes because they could not pay their mortgages is fast becoming a thing of the past.

M. HAYES,

Brandlesholme Road,

Bury.