Despite ‘the age of austerity’, Britain still has a debt problem. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Centre for Social Justice. It suggests that personal debt in the UK has reached a record high of £1.4 trillion, or 90 per cent of the UK’s economic output last year. That’s not happened overnight; but the debt level has increased steadily over the last decade:
Breaking this down, the CSJ says that the average household debt is now £54,000 (nearly double what it was a decade ago). Thanks to the increase in borrowing, 5,000 people were made homeless last year due to mortgage and rent arrears. Christian Guy, director the CSJ, explains: ‘years of increased borrowing, rising living costs and struggling to save has forced many families into a debt trap that is proving very difficult to escape’.
How has this happened? The financial crisis isn’t the only factor — the cost of living (up 25 per cent in the last five years) combined with an increase in both big (above £100) and small debts is key.
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