Public Sector Debt Larger Than Originally Feared

Tue, 12 Apr 2011

Britain’s true national debt has risen to £3,617 billion, or £138,359 per household, according to new data from the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS).

The CPS figure is four times larger than the Office for National Statistics’ total public sector debt estimate of £876 billion - rising to £2,252 billion when including the debt from the state-rescued banks .

When divided across the 26 million households in the UK, it suggests that each owes an average of £138,359, compared to the original ONS figure of £33,100 per household.

Brooks Newmark, Tory MP and co-author of the CPS report, The Hidden Debt Bombshell, said: "The size of the country’s debt is bad, but actually it is even worse than people think. We have to be honest with taxpayers about the true extent of the liabilities."

The report claims that Britain’s debts are larger because three vital factors are excluded from the Government’s accounts – the cost of the unfunded public sector pension liability, estimated by the CPS to be £1,180bn; the debt from public projects paid for under the private finance initiative, estimated to be £169bn; and the debts of Network Rail, estimated to be around £24bn.

Mr Newmark added: "It is clear that the extent of UK indebtedness is such that the Coalition must be relentless in its efforts to cut the deficit as quickly as possible."
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