Britons' debt grows £1m every four minutes

Last updated at 11:50 02 June 2004


Britons are increasing their debts by £1m every four minutes as the amount owed through mortgages and credit cards has risen to hit £984.81bn.

Bank of England figures showed that during April the amount owed through mortgages, credit cards, overdrafts and loans rose by £11.13 billion to hit £984.81 billion, putting consumers on track to owe £1 trillion by the middle of this month.

Mortgage lending rose by a record £9.8 billion

during April, increasing the likelihood that the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee will raise interest rates again when it meets next week.

Total mortgage lending also remained strong at £25.39 billion, although the value of loans approved weakened slightly to £26.11 billion and the number of loans approved for house purchase fell to 124,000 - both below the recent three-month average.

Consumer borrowing through loans, credit cards and overdrafts also hit a new high during April to reach £18.07 billion.

Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec, said: "All in all, the picture is that household borrowing is rising in the region of £11 billion a month, an annual rate approaching 15%. That clearly is too fast for the Bank of England."

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