Monday, 13 May 2013

"Stiff upper lip" British Stoicism writ large

Hardworking families grudgingly admit that they might be hard pressed but wouldn't want to make a big song and dance about it. Government hoping to spread the burden by bringing more into the net under some  All in it together measures

2 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

where do they get the £848 billion from?

The figure has been stuck at about £1,200 billion for the last few years.

Jesus.

Bob E said...

MW - the ONS say [[lease excuse my emphasis] in the intro of the report :-

"For the purposes of the
current story, property debt includes liabilities held against , a household’s main residence only . An earlier report concentrated on household financial debt, and comparisons between these two forms of debt have been made within the accompanying infographic."

The infographic** sets the burden of household financial debt at under £90 billion, giving about £940 billion in total. From which I am inclined to conclude that the debt burden represented by "second homes and buy to let portfolios" etc. must be of the order of £300 billion.

** available with lots of other jolly reports and stats here http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/was/wealth-in-great-britain-wave-2/the-burden-of-property-debt-in-great-britain/the-burden-of-property-debt-in-great-britain--2006-08---2008-10.html