I worked for a mortgage lender a few years ago dealing with debt recovery. I can honestly say that virtually the only cases where we had to repossess where the "won't pay" rather than the "can't pay", or cases were borrowers stuck their heads in the sand and refused to contact us to try and sort out the problems.
I can't speak for all lenders, but repossession is a really time consuming (and therefore expensive in terms of staff time)and expensive, so is not something done lightly, so the first thing I'd say is that if you haven't done so already, contact your lender.
It's hard to advise without knowing your situation, but is there a specific reason why you've fallen behind with payments, and is that problem something which is sortable, given time (ie lost job, will be sorted when new job found)? If so, explain, ask for time.
If you have equity in the property and can continue to make payments but can't pay the arrears, ask if the arrears can be added to the main loan. It'll mean higher interest payments, but you'll be back on track.
If you can, make an offer of gradual repayment of arrears. Even if it's only paying an additional £25 per month (or whatever), make the offer. If they refuse, go to the Court hearing and make the offer again there - it's more likely they'll accept than look unhelpful in from of a judge.
You probably will be able to get another mortgage following repossession, but it will be really hard at the moment (lenders only want really good borrowers) and you'll probably be stuck with the slightly dodgy lenders who advertise on daytime TV and charge much higher rates. Your credit record will also be affected, so credit cards etc will be harder to come by and charged at a much higher rate.
If the lender won't listen to your offers, try the CAB, they can contact then lender direct - they often take notice of the CAB when they won't accept an offer from a borrower.