IRRV Alert - week ending 7th February 2020
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Household Debt: Key Economic Indicators (7 February 2020)
House of Commons Library
Household Debt: Key Economic Indicators
Published Friday, February 7, 2020
Household debt: Data on the latest household debt statistics, including net lending, mortgage interest rates and insolvencies.
Household debt as a % of disposable income
Household debt peaked in Q2 2008 at 147% of household disposable income. It then declined to 124% by late 2015.
Growth in household debt levels accelerated from early 2016, so that the debt-to-income ratio rose again to 128% by mid-2017. In Q3 2019 it was 126.6%.
Statistical note: The household debt and income source data were changed in May. Previously debt and income totals included the non-profit sector (mostly charities and universities). The new data reflects only individuals in the household sector. The overall historical trends are unchanged. For more see Box 1 in the Library paper on household debt.
Current average mortgage interest rates
The average Standard Variable Rate (SVR) was 4.27% in January 2020, down from 4.48 a year ago.
The average 2-year fixed mortgage rate was 1.45% in January 2020, down 0.27% points on the year.
Individual insolvencies, England and Wales
There were 29,261 individual insolvencies in England and Wales in Q4 2019, slightly down on the previous quarter. This is the fifth successive quarterly fall in the number of insolvencies.
The Q4 2019 level is the 16% down on the level in Q4 2018, which saw the highest number of insolvencies since Q1 2010.
In Scotland, there were 3,312 individual insolvencies in Q4 2019, slightly up on the level a year before.
In Northern Ireland, there were 656 individual insolvencies in Q4 2019, down 7% on the year.
Commons Briefing papers SN02885
Author: Chris Rhodes
Topics: Economic situation, Financial services, Incomes and poverty
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Household Debt: Key Economic Indicators ( 
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