Panorama

When the Roof Falls In (1985x21)

: 24, 1985

The number of home owners who can't pay the mortgage is rising sharply. Last year 11,000 families lost their homes when the building societies repossessed them. Millions more live in crumbling houses they can't afford to repair. As people struggle to buy their own homes, Richard Lindley talks to the families and old people who have found home ownership not a boon but a burden — and more than they can bear.