Personal Debt the fault of lenders or spenders?

High levels of debt are a problem for many people. For some, it’s become a crisis – especially as interest rates go up.

Cases of personal bankruptcy and repossessions are mounting – a reminder of the bad old days of the early 1990s, when we also saw negative equity, 15% mortgage rates and rising unemployment.

Sometimes people may have unwisely overstretched themselves.

Equally it’s often banks and other lenders who’ve lent unwisely.

Despite new legislation for better consumer protection from loan sharks, I still see too many examples of poor lending practice – not just from my constituency casework but also from letters credit card companies send me.

I hold advice surgeries twice a week – on Mondays from 8am in my Berrylands Road office, with a second session on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday. (Please check my website for details – www.edwarddavey.co.uk – or call my office on 8288 0161).

From listening to people at these surgeries and from constituents’ letters, I believe this debt problem is getting worse.

There’s no doubt student tuition fees and rising housing costs have made the situation worse, putting huge pressure on families. It’s vital we build more affordable housing and scrap tuition fees.

Yet we need a wider approach – from improving financial education at school to boosting groups like the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux, who do such brilliant work supporting people in trouble with debt.

Given the recent chaos in the world’s financial markets was largely caused by concerns about the bad loans of some American banks, we also need to get tough with our own lending institutions when they behave recklessly.