South west is UK’s bankruptcy capital

Six out of the ten towns in the UK recording the highest level of bankruptcy per head are based in the South west of England, a study commissioned by the BBC has announced.The survey also found that the North of England and Scotland are also areas of high financial strain – nearly three out of 10 people in Manchester and Glasgow say they suffer from high levels of financial pressure.

Research by credit checking agency Experian built a debt profile of the UK for the BBC after looking at more than 300 UK towns and boroughs to see which parts were struggling the most with financial problems, charting the prevalence of bankruptcies, Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) and people feeling stressed by their finances woes.

Liz McVey, the manager of the Glasgow office of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, told BBC News: “We have doubled the number of counsellors in the past year, just to cope with the demand from people in debt difficulty.’