Richard Haymes, Head of Financial Difficulties at TDX Group, an Equifax company, comments on the development of a  two-tier debt economy and the divergent consequences for people on either side of the personal debt line:

“Our latest research  shows a significant and growing disparity between the level of individual insolvencies across age profiles and UK regions. Those aged under 35 are increasingly likely to enter into insolvency and those living in Peterborough are up to fourteen times more likely to become insolvent than people residing in London. 

“One in 239 people in Peterborough and one in 273 people in Norwich entered an Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA) in 2017. Other insolvency hot spots included Brighton (one in 323), Portsmouth (one in 333) and Newcastle (one in 358). People living in the major metropolitan areas of Liverpool (one in 814) , Glasgow (one in 842), Birmingham (one in 1020) and London (one in 3478) are much less likely to enter into personal insolvency. 

See PDF for full data tables.