Debt-ridden Britain

IN a few brief words, a former pensions minister sums up the lesson of the City watchdog’s alarming report that four million debt-ridden Britons are on the brink of financial meltdown.

‘We have got to get Britain saving again,’ says Baroness Altmann. ‘We can’t keep living on debt.’

Indeed, two urgent questions arise from the Financial Conduct Authority’s findings that countless borrowers could be plunged into ruin by unexpected bills, while 6.5million have no savings at all.

First: How can reckless finance companies be permitted to go on dishing out lowinterest car loans to people who cannot hope to repay them if interest rates rise?

And second: With 15million workers failing to put money aside for retirement, wouldn’t it be criminally foolish of Chancellor Philip Hammond to discourage prudence further by launching yet another tax raid on pension contributions?