Storage solution to ease eviction worry

FAMILIES hit by the recession and thrown out of their homes are being offered a lifeline by a Stoke-on-Trent storage company.

Jumbo Self Storage is offering a free van and driver for the day to people who have been evicted or had their homes repossessed.

The deal is dependent on them taking storage at Jumbo's Tunstall depot, but that will be charged at half price.

Managing director James Kerr said the company was keen to help hard-pressed families as the number of people out of work and threatened with losing their home in North Staffordshire and South Cheshire spirals.

But he also wants to boost sales and win repeat business when times are not so hard.

Mr Kerr said: "These are difficult times, but they won't last forever.

"The people we help out will hopefully remember us when things start to get easier, but even if they don't at least we have helped them to get back on their feet.

"We have noticed an increase in the number of people using our storage facilities who have been evicted.

"Some families were unable to keep paying us, and it's our policy to always try to work out a solution.

"Quite often people don't have anywhere else to go, and we decided to launch this offer to help things along."

Latest figures for mortgage repossession orders – applied for when there are arrears on a mortgage – stand at 179 in Stoke-on-Trent for the first quarter of this year, while in Crewe there were 47.

The scheme is open to anyone who can provide proof they have lost their home.

Jumbo also has a branch in Hanley, but the offer only applies to the Beaumont Road facility in Tunstall.

Jumbo general manager Robert Symon said the company had noticed a change in people's storage habits as a result of the recession.

He said: "Over the last 12 to 18 months people have been falling on hard times, and we have been trying our best to help out.

Jumbo workers have also noticed an increase in young adults moving back in with their parents to cut costs during the economic downturn.

Mr Kerr added: "This is a new phenomenon, with young adults having to move back in with parents as a result of the credit crunch.

"It's something we've not experienced before, and at the moment we're getting two or three cases a week.

"When we speak to the families concerned we find some have been made redundant.

"Young adults seem to be hit harder than older people during the recession because they don't have as much in the way of savings."

How has your business been affected by the recession? Email us at businessdesk@thesentinel.co.uk