The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is considering whether new regulations are required to protect indebted borrowers against losing their homes, The Times reports.

If agreed on, new rules could provide homeowners with ‘mounting credit card or loan bills’ with greater protection ‘against the threat of being forced to sell their home to clear debts’.

The MoJ is looking into whether creditors should only be allowed to repossess a home if a borrower owes more than a minimum level of debt. Rules could be put in place to stop creditors ‘insisting on the sale’ of a home when someone owes just a few thousand pounds.

The move comes as new figures from the Insolvency Service show that in 2009, 134,142 people in England and Wales were declared insolvent. More than 50% of these insolvencies were bankruptcies, while the rest were made up of IVAs (Individual Voluntary Arrangements) and DROs (Debt Relief Orders).