Posted on 08/04/2006 6:01:48 PM PDT by blam
Britons go bust at rate of one per minute
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
(Filed: 05/08/2006)
One person is falling victim to insolvency every minute of the working day and home repossession applications show the biggest rise since the early 1990s housing crash.
Many are finding it impossible to pay record gas and electricity bills
The Government figures issued yesterday, 24 hours after the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in two years, show that more and more families are being caught up in the ballooning debt crisis.
Experts said that many families were finding it impossible to pay record gas and electricity bills, mortgage payments and council taxes and thousands were now throwing in the towel on their finances.
The Insolvency Service said that 26,021 people became insolvent between April and June. That brought the total so far this year to 49,674, with the figure expected to pass 100,000 by January. The City fears that the record £1,200 billion mountain of debt could cause a serious downturn in the economy.
26,021 people became insolvent between April and June this year
Figures from the Department for Constitutional Affairs showed that the number of lenders' applications to take possession of defaulters' homes was 33,180 in the second quarter - the highest since 1992. Although many families cling on to their homes by reaching a deal with creditors, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said the number of repossessions in the first half of the year was up by 76 per cent to 8,140. Further increases are expected.
The jump in insolvencies is largely attributable to the growing popularity of Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), an alternative to bankruptcy. The number of people entering IVAs to clear their debts has rocketed by a record 153 per cent to 11,105 in the second quarter of this year. Consumer groups say that debt companies are pushing IVAs very aggressively.
Cases of bankruptcy, which imposes harsher penalties on debtors, dropped by 3.3 per cent to 14,915 in the three months to June.
The consultants KPMG said that about 800 of those who entered IVAs in the past three months did so with more than £100,000 of unsecured debt, such as credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans. Mark Sands, the group's director of insolvencies, said the number of insolvencies could reach 150,000 next year.
"If people think this is temporary, they have been misled," he said. "We are entering a new era where personal insolvency is going to be an accepted part of everyday life. In the past few years there has been a complete change in people's attitude to credit and banks' attitudes to people reneging on debt."
Consumer groups have strongly criticised the major banks, five of which declared combined half-year profits of around £20 billion this week. Politicians have also questioned banks' increased spending on marketing loans.
The banks have had to increase the provisions they are making for bad debts.
Eric Daniels, the chief executive of Lloyds TSB, said:"Twenty years ago a debt was something that people would naturally repay. Today, advice is being given to students that the minute they graduate they should default. It is a huge societal change.''
Didn't happen during Lady Thatcher's rule.
They don't use any air-conditioning at all, and very few houses have it. Buying wood is quite costly in many parts of England--it can be a luxury in some areas. The UK is not like the US in that regard. In most areas you can't just step out your back door and cut down a tree the way you can here (if you know what you're doing).
In general people there live at a lower standard than they would at the same income level in the US. You would be dismayed at how modestly the British live for their income level. Costs are very high there. Real estate us absolutely staggering; it makes California look cheap.
" Didn't happen during Lady Thatcher's rule."
What was the unemployment rate during the Thatcher years ?
Socialism is a bankrupt ideology and should be abandoned immediately.
" In general people there live at a lower standard than they would at the same income level in the US. You would be dismayed at how modestly the British live for their income level. Costs are very high there. Real estate us absolutely staggering; it makes California look cheap."
Tell me about it ...That's one reason why some of my musician friends have taken up residency in the USA . There is more work for them ( recording / gigging ) , they can have a much higher standard of living , and the climate is better to boot . I once read that 65% of Brits would move from the U.K. if they could .
I am guessing we have them beat at this game too!
Personally, I think they should be more concerned with the Britons who go boom rather than the ones that go bust...
Check out how much they pay for a car and the subsequent insurance and the subsequent toll fees.
Its no wonder they drive around in such weanie little cars. Apparently an 8 cylinder car like a Rover is taxed much higher than a 4 cylinder car.
As a tourist this summer, I found London to be about twice as expensive as the US, for near everything. But the Londeners keep boozing, even though a pint cost about 5-6 bucks. A lousy dinner costs about 30 bucks. A good one twice that. A glass of wine is about 7 bucks. A hotel room with some modern conveniences, and A/C, is about 250 bucks.
When I asked my son how his trip to England was, he said, crowded.
13% want to emigrate in the " near future " . I read that 60+ % would move if they could - a different poll .
" Check out how much they pay for a car and the subsequent insurance and the subsequent toll fees. "
Japan has come England beat . Japan is slightly smaller than California . To drive from southenmost Japan to Hokkaido would cost you over $ 400 in tolls .
In the late 70's and early 80's England was a bargain . I used to go twice a year from New York . Things sure have changed .
Didn't mean to appear to question your number...that link was just something I posted a couple days ago.
But that is because the tax rates are so enormous as to discourage personal property ownership. You can effect socialism by forcing the surrender of personal property through the use of force but you can also succeed through tax rates so high that it forces almost everyone into poverty. That appears to be the British way to do it.
Majority of Britons want to leave country
MORE than half of Britons would like to emigrate from their homeland, fed up with the price of living and terrible weather, and would prefer to live in the United States or Spain, a survey published on Monday said.
Fifty-four per cent of Britons surveyed by pollsters YouGov for the Daily Telegraph newspaper said they would like to settle abroad if they were free to do so.
Similar polls found just 42 per cent wanted to emigrate in 1948 shortly after World War II, and only 40 per cent in 1975.
Of those wanting to leave Britain behind, the United States was the most popular destination followed by Australia.
However, if language wasn’t a barrier — Britons are the worst linguists in Europe according to an EU poll — then Spain would be their preferred country of residence followed by France, with the U.S. pushed back into third place.
The survey found that being able live more cheaply and the chance of new opportunities were cited as the main reasons for moving abroad. Unsurprisingly the notoriously wet and shifty British climate was the next most popular reason for leaving.
However, the much maligned British cuisine was less of a problem with only 25 per cent citing it as a problem.
The biggest draw for staying in Britain was being with family and friends, whilst the second most common reason was Britain’s proud history. ( Reuters )
Actually, it's just a normal part of the welfare-state mentality. We can expect to see the same kind of decadence and hopelessness here in our own country if and when the Democrats finally succeed in turning America into a French-style, secular-socialist welfare state. It will begin with socialized health care (for everybody except the political class, of course).
No problem ...and I was slightly incorrect , it was 54% . Read previous post .
Excuse me, but Tony Blair's foreign policy (and Bush's) has driven up the price of oil, which is one reason - according to the article - that people are "going bust."
" Its no wonder they drive around in such weanie little cars. Apparently an 8 cylinder car like a Rover is taxed much higher than a 4 cylinder car."
Japanese pay from $ 1000 a year to have their cars " inspected " ( cost depends on engine size ) . Taxes are seperate . Gasoline is $ 5 a gallon . Road fees astronomical . There's more ...but nobody complains .
Yeah, I've been to Japan and it's similar there. No A/C, very little heat. We were there in winter, and it was fortunate that it wasn't too cold.
Today, advice is being given to students that the minute they graduate they should default.
Heck, I remember back in 77-78 here in the US the students were being told to take all the student loans they could get, then file bankruptcy after graduating.
Last year U.S. credit card issuers sent out 6 billion unsolicited mailings.
Doubtless, but that does not negate my point: that the average Briton is already tightened his belt to the point of strangulation and can't tighten it much more. The average Brit cannot be as physically self-sufficient as the average American. Here, when the cost of heating oil and gas soars we go out and chop down a tree. It's not so easy to do that over there. So in the UK a rise in utility costs might drive one into insolvency. And believe me, they do not heat their houses very much at all; they consider a house over-heated when the temperature goes over 65. It's cold, especially in a lot of their badly-insulated old houses.
I wasn't disputing your point, merely pointing out that when the government punishes you severely for earning more than average, is it any wonder that most people haven't the means to adjust to the rising cost of certain necessities? Apparently, some tried to answer their needs with credit card debt only to find the same debt spiral that many Americans are in.
Hardly. One reason for high property prices here is soaring demand outstripping supply - already more houses are in owner occupation, as distinct from rented, than at any time in our history. This partly derives from the 'right to buy' council houses, introduced by the Thatcher government but continued enthusiastically by New Labour: but more from radical social changes resulting in more households (more people living alone, separated families etc).
Surely your not going to tell me that the Blair domestic economic policy and the Bush domestic economic policy are one in the same. That Blair's stewardship of the economy has been less than steller is undeniable, while Bush has presided over an economy that had six consecutive quarters of GDP growth that exceeded 3 1/2%. Under Blair the economy has grown at an anemic(combining the last two quarters) 1 1/2% while the American economy is growing at over 8% during the same two quarters. Interestingly enough, we had those great GDP numbers even in the face of a FED sponsored slowdown. CB, the numbers tell the story. The UK economy is not growing fast enough, and individuals and entrepreneurs are feeling the pinch. To blame gas prices and ignore New Labour's mishandling of the economy is to miss most of the story.
Now, as to foreign policy. What, pray tell, have Blair and Bush done foreign policy wise that has driven up the price of oil? Now if you said bringing China into the WTO and the resultant explosion of growth that has absorbed a greater share of the world's supply of oil, I would say you're on to something there. Throw in India's economic resurgence with over 1 billion Indians enjoying the bounties of the free enterprise system, and voila, you have a two emerging colossal capitalist powers with a thirst for oil that has helped drive prices up. Now what would you have Tony Blair and George Bush do about that, revisit Kyoto and have China and India included this time?
Churchillbuff,
You need to change that name to Chamberlainbuff, because you are a first class appeaser. You would have never been with Churchill in the 30's, no you would have been with the diffident daladiers to the bitter end. Your name is a fraud, given your position on the issues.
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