Mortgage repossession cases across Kent and Medway fell by nearly a third last year, bucking the national trend.

Figures released this morning by the Ministry of Justice show there were 4,951 cases bought before the county courts in Kent and Medway last year, a fall of four per cent on 2007.

However, a new mortgage pre-action protocol was introduced in November last year which makes clear what steps the courts expect lenders and borrowers to have made before a claim comes before them - and this is thought to have contributed to the fall in repossession actions in the last quarter of the year.

Nationally, home repossessions rose by 54 per cent to 40,000 according to figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Canterbury saw the only rise in repossession actions last year, with 615 cases being brought before the county court, a rise of six per cent.

The highest percentage fall was in Ashford, where there were 506 actions, nine per cent down on 2007.

The most actions bought were in Medway where 1,341 cases were brought before the county court, seven per cent down on 2007.

However, landlord-brought brought cases were up across the county.

There were 4,654 instances of these brought before the county courts in 2008, five per cent up on 2007.

Ashford saw the only fall (25 per cent to 348) in cases brought before the court, while Canterbury saw the biggest rise (20 per cent to 534).

The largest number of landlord cases were brought in Dartford (1,197, up by nine per cent).

However, these figures do not indicate how many properties were actually repossessed. Repossessions can occur without a court order, while not all court orders result in repossession.