Manchester tops the debt league, survey reveals

Manchester is the debt capital of Britain with Glasgow in second place and Nottingham third, a survey for ITV1’s Repossession, Repossession, Repossession reveals. At the other end of the scale the Isles of Scilly is the least indebted place followed by Hart, Uttlesford and Richmond upon Thames.

The survey, by Experian, the global information services company and Europe’s largest credit reference agency, is featured in ITV1’s Repossession, Repossession, Repossession, which transmits on Wednesday February 6 at 10.35pm on ITV1.

Bruno Rost, from Experian, said: “Experian has provided ITV with its latest findings from its Financial Stress or Level of Indebtedness model.

“This model takes into account information on mortgages, credit and store cards, personal loans and payment behaviour. It also incorporates publicly available information on previous bad debt, such as county court judgements. This is all combined to give a score which shows that Manchester is the most financially stressed place in the UK.”

The top 20 areas in debt (broken down by local/unitary authority areas) are:

1) Manchester
2) Glasgow (City of)
3) Nottingham
4) Knowsley
5) Middlesbrough
6) Kingston-upon-Hull (City of)
7) Liverpool
8) Southwark
9) Tower Hamlets
10) Hackney
11) Derry
12) Hartlepool
13) South Tyneside
14) Halton
15) Salford
16) West Dunbartshire
17) Lincoln
18) Stoke-on-Trent
19) Sunderland
20) Belfast

Those areas least in the red are:

1) Isles of Scilly
2) Hart
3) Uttlesford
4) Richmond Upon Thames
5) South Northamptonshire
6) West Oxfordshire
7) East Dorset
8) Wokingham
9) Tandridge
10) St Albans
11) South Bucks
12) Windsor and Maidenhead
13) Epsom and Ewell
14) Guildford
15) Mid Suffolk
16) Broadland
17) South Cambridgeshire
18) Waverley
19) Derbyshire Dales
20) East Hertfordshire

Repossession, Repossession, Repossession also filmed at the offices of Manchester’s Citizens Advice Bureau where its debt service manager, Marsha Healy, said debt had overtaken welfare as the biggest single area of enquiry across the country.

“As a percentage of our enquiries it’s now overtaken welfare as the biggest single area of enquiry. The pressure on our service is enormous.

“People who we see, I would think that for the grace of God, really, that could be any one of us tomorrow. When we see them we think, well, no, my debts are no smaller than yours. The difference between me and you is I didn’t lose my job or somebody didn’t get sick. That’s the only thing that tends to separate the debt advisor from the person who’s struggling to pay,” she said.

Repossession, Repossession, Repossession transmits Wednesday (February 6) at 10.35pm on ITV1.