Nearly half a million UK households are still in negative equity - meaning their homes are worth less than the mortgages on them, figures show.

There is wide regional variation, with 41% of borrowers in Northern Ireland - 68,000 homeowners - in negative equity at the end of 2013, the figures from mortgage group HML show, In north-east England and Cumbria the figure is 16%.But in London, where house prices have surged, only 1% are in negative equity.

That is actually worse than six months previously, when the figure was 14%, presumably tracking a further decline in house prices in the region. Not far behind that is Scotland, where 13% of borrowers are in difficulties.

The figures are based on data from more than one million home loans. By contrast, only 1% of borrowers in London find themselves in negative equity, following the surge in the capital's property prices.

Overall just 8% of mortgage holders are now in that position, amounting to 463,000 homeowners, a big improvement on five years ago.