Corolla - squeaking when reversing

sillysocks

So I have an 07 Corolla saloon, which is nearing the end of its life with me. Hoping to change in the next couple of months. But at the moment there is quite a large squeaking/squealing noise which I think is coming from the back wheels in particular when the car is cold and when I'm reversing it out in the mornings. Sometimes there's a squeak when I am lightly using the breaks but it doesn't happen when I'm braking fully. Once I've been driving it a while it seems to improve and doesn't really squeal at all.
Does that point to anything obvious? I was NCT'd about 3 months ago and had a service. At the time there was a slight squeak but much less and the garage guy said he checked pads etc and they were ok and maybe it was just because of a spell of dry weather that the breaks were too dry-which now seems like rubbish to me!
Know I'll probably need to drop it to the garage but had no time this week and am curious as to whether it might be something big or worth just waiting until I change the car.

biko

Probably sticking brakes.
Try not to park with handbrake on, instead leave it in first gear.
See if that changes anything.

sillysocks

Thanks, will give that a try. If that is the issue would it be a big job to fix and if it wasn't fixed immediately could it lead to bigger issues? Now that you say it the handbrake does make a noise every so often when it's been parked a while.

MojoMaker

Handbrake cables tend to stick on them, you'll hear/notice it more when reversing than when going forward. You'll need one or perhaps both cables replaced - about a ton from a service centre like Atlas to get it sorted.