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Many of the mortgage borrowers who took advantage of Northern Rock's controversial Together loans have now had repossession proceedings started against them, it can be revealed.

The popular Together mortgages, which gave borrowers 100 per cent of the value of the property and a further 25 per cent unsecured, came in for a lot of criticisms from brokers and politicians at the time.

Now the nationalised lender has admitted that 70 per cent of the 4201 - up by nearly 2000 on December last year - repossessed properties on its books at the end of September were the homes of Together customers.

But David Hollingworth, from Bath-based London & Country, said high loan-to-value loans taken out two years ago are not necessarily a sign of irresponsible lending and most people could reasonably have expected to move onto another affordable deal when they bought the product.

He accused Northern Rock of forcing many of these customers into arrears by "trapping" them on standard variable rates they cannot afford.

"They have been poorly served by Northern Rock," he said. "People are coming off these deals with no interest in their property because prices have fallen and they are effectively trapped in the standard variable rate because they have only passed on a fraction of the base rate cuts.

"Whereas a few months ago they would have had plenty of options to refinance their mortgages elsewhere, now there is nothing."

Northern Rock responded by saying: "We are helping to allow people the chance to transfer away from us where ever possible. If there are customers who have gone on to our standard variable rate and are struggling to meet their payments then those are the people who we'll typically be working with through our debt management team to avoid repossession."

Mr Hollingworth defended people who took out Together loans: "Our experience was that most people would use the product at 100 per cent rather than the maximum 125 per cent and it was for buying their property, not maxing out their debt.

"These deals allowed people to get on the property ladder where before they had seen prices rising faster than they could save for a deposit."

Northern Rock reduced its standard variable by 0.15 per cent to 7.34 per cent after the Bank of England slashed the base rate 2.5 per cent.

According to its interim results for 2007 - the last before the bank went into administration - Northern Rock had lent £3.3bn in the unsecured element of Together loans alone.

Total Together loans made up 24 per cent of the bank's £90bn mortgage book, which was around 10 per cent of the total mortgage UK market.

By mid-2008 the bank had cut its unsecured Together portfolio by £240m and its overall residential lending by around £13bn. Total Together loans were 22 per cent of this, around £17bn.

The product was discontinued in February and the previous December Northern Rock bid to discourage customers from taking out the full £30,000 unsecured section of the loan, by offering a version with a £10,000 maximum for 0.20 per cent lower rate.

Financial Adviser asked Northern Rock for the number of Together mortgages as of last August and August 2007 divided into age group, professional status and whether they are first-time buyers, as well as the same information on people in one, two and three month arrears and those subject possession orders. But the lender declined the request, although spokesman Brian Giles said the banks "always" treat repossession as a last resort and offer reduced payment periods for certain customers.

He added its published business statement include a commitment to pay back the money spent nationalising Northern Rock, which prevented a full rate cut in line with the Bank of England reduction.

Yvette Cooper, chief secretary to the Treasury, waded into the debate on repossessions during the weekend, when she gave a BBC interview urging banks to consider repayment holidays and mortgage rescue schemes as an option to repossession.