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Savings and equity `worth more than debt burden`

25/07/2007

The total of Britons` savings and equity is worth four times the collective debt burden, according to new research.

People in the UK owe £1.3 trillion of mortgage and other debt, while their savings and equity - including homes - are worth £5.1 trillion, figures from Alliance & Leicester reveal.

However, although these personal finance statistics may sound promising, the study indicates that the savings are spread unequally throughout the country, with different regions possessing different proportions of wealth.

Additionally, age was shown to be a strong factor in determining how much equity and savings each person had, with 62 per cent of wealth belonging to over-55s, compared with nine per cent in the hands of those under 35.

Ewan Edwards, head of savings and investments at Alliance & Leicester, encouraged Britons to keep saving, saying that the extra money "can make all the difference to quality of life and the choices open to us".

Recent research by moneysupermarket.com stated that more than 2.1 million people in the UK are permanently overdrawn.

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