A debt time bomb

HAVE our grasping banks learned nothing in the decade since the financial crash? In the aftermath of that cataclysm we were told again and again that the mistakes of the past would never be repeated.

Yet as the Mail reveals today, lenders are offering mortgages to new buyers worth up to six times their salaries, and average borrowing as a multiple of earnings is now at its highest since records began.

Even more troubling is the return of highrisk, sub-prime lending to customers with a poor credit history.

Yes, the economy is still ticking over (touch wood). But who can predict when interest rates will rise again, or whether house prices could fall around the country as they have done in London, raising the terrifying spectre of negative equity?

The banks should think again. And, unless they want another crisis on their hands, regulators must clamp down on this recklessness with the utmost urgency. THE decision by Diabetes UK to accept a £500,000 deal with soft drinks giant Britvic is a grave misjudgment. Last week the charity produced figures showing that the diabetes crisis among children and young people is even worse than feared. So how can its executives justify taking money from a company whose drinks – when consumed to excess – contribute to this devastating condition? If they do not hand the money back they risk undermining the charity’s credibility.