Northern Rock, the nationalised mortgage lender, has joined a growing list of banks agreeing to help struggling homeowners by delaying the issue of repossession orders by six months.

The concession by the bank, a highly aggressive mortgage lender before it was taken into government ownership, comes just weeks after it came under heavy fire for its soaring repossession rate.

Last month, it emerged that Northern Rock had seized 4,201 homes by the end of September, almost double its rate at the end of last year and 50 per cent higher than the industry average.

Today, the lender said it would commit not to repossess any owner-occupied houses until at least six months after borrowers fall into arrears. Northern Rock promised to seize control of properties only as a "last resort" and pledged to try to agree an alternative debt repayment plan in advance.

Earlier this week, Royal Bank of Scotland, also part-owned by the taxpayer, moved to extend its breathing space for mortgage borrowers in difficulty from three to six months.

Today's move coincides with government efforts to head off a surge in repossessions. In October, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, introduced new rules requiring lenders to prove that a house has been repossessed only as a last resort.

In the third quarter, the number of people whose homes were repossessed leapt by 12 per cent, with 11,300 properties recovered between July and September — up from 10,100 in the second quarter, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Gary Hoffman, the former Barclaycard boss who now runs Northern Rock, said: “We continue to work with customers facing repayment difficulties to try and agree an acceptable debt management solution and avoid repossession.

"In the vast majority of cases, where repossession regrettably does take place, we have been working with the customer for well over six months. We will now formalise our policy and agree not to repossess a property for a period of at least six months from the point of arrears.”

Northern Rock said that, when repossessions did occur, it had worked with embattled borrowers for 15 months. It said that it had moved within six months in only 1 per cent of its repossessions.

Northern Rock was nationalised in February after a series of mooted rescue plans failed. It had become over-reliant on the wholesale markets for funding after trying to become a top-five mortgage lender quickly.

Experts have noted that its repossession rate is bound to be higher than the average because it regularly offered loans worth 100 per cent of a property and above.

While Northern Rock passed on the whole of the Bank of England's 1.5 per cent cut in interest rates to its standard variable rate mortgage borrowers last month, it courted controversy by increasing rates on some of its best tracker deals at the same time.

Northern Rock's pledge emerged as Peter Mandelson, the Business Secretary, increases the pressure on Britain's banks to support consumers and small businesses during the economic recession.

Lloyds TSB and HBOS, which are merging in a deal that was brokered by Mr Brown, have both released details of packages designed to maintain lending support for small businesses.

All of the big five lenders have been accused of sitting on their capital, failing to provide the financial support that small firms need in order to ride out the recession.

Lloyds TSB has promised to pass on interest rate cuts to businesses with turnover below £1 million, while Bank of Scotland, part of HBOS, has said it will not insist on the right to call in overdrafts on demand.

Lloyds said yesterday that it would not alter the terms of a company's overdraft facility inside a pre-agreed timetable.

Both banks will now link lending rates to Libor — the rate London banks charge to lend to each other — rather than the Bank's base rate.

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