Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the regional spread of household debt in each of the last three years.

The Government is committed to monitoring and understanding households’ personal finances in order to inform policy making to help people manage their money well, encourage them to save and access appropriate guidance and support if they need help to get their finances back on track. To do so, the Government monitors personal debt levels by working closely with the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and by engaging regularly with many other stakeholders on their research and findings.

The FCA conducts a biennial Financial Lives Survey which provides a comprehensive insight into the finances of the UK population. MaPS monitors financial difficulty through an annual survey of 22,000 people. The results of MaPS’ latest Debt Need Survey were published on 23 February 2022. This includes a regional breakdown of how the need for debt advice changed since 2019 across the UK. The summary of their findings can be found in the link below

Who needs debt advice in 2022? | The Money and Pensions Service (maps.org.uk)

MaPS also intends to publish constituency-level results later this year.