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Talk to anyone nowadays and the likelihood is the subject of debt will come up. More people have mortgage arrears and money problems of some description, debt consolidation is a continual process and credit card debt is a burden that too many households carry.

Bankruptcy and repossessions are at their highest levels and cheap loans and low interest finance all too readily available. It is just too easy to borrow money and get yourself into debt.

It's hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV these days without being reminded about the massive levels of consumer debt in the UK.

According to official figures, at the end of July 2007, the average household in the UK had total debts of nearly £9,000 - excluding their mortgage. If you strip out those households that don't have any unsecured debt at all, then the average goes up to £20,600.

No, that's not a typo. Amongst households who have unsecured debts (such as personal loans, credit card debts, etc) the average amount owed is just over £20,000. Add to that the average mortgage debt of £96,560 and you have a total debt figure per household of nearly £120,000. That's not far short of a quarter of a million pounds.

Is this a new issue or are we now just more aware of the debt problem in this country? The answer seems to be that it's a problem which has been brewing for some years.

If you add up all the mortgages, all the secured loans, all the credit card debt, and all the other unsecured debt, then the total level of personal debt across everyone in the UK stood at around four hundred billion pounds. That figure has increased steadily every year and by July 2007 it had risen to £1,355 billion.

So what's the problem with all this debt? Well, so long as people are able to service their debt (i.e. keep up the repayments each month) then things aren't too bad. But what is happening is that as levels of debt rise, people are finding it harder to service their debts, especially as interest rates continue to creep up.

This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that in the first half of 2007, there were 14,000 homes repossessed as a result of people being unable to pay their mortgages. That's around 77 families every day losing the roof over their heads.

Who is to blame for all this? Well, the answer depends on who you talk to.

Some people blame consumers (you and me) and what they see as our irresponsible attitude to debt. There is no denying that we live in a buy-now-pay-later culture to an extent that our parents and grandparents never did. We've also got far more disposable income that previous generations - but at the same time, we certainly don't have any shortage of opportunities to dispose of it.

If you're over 30, cast your mind back to the 1970s (if you're a mere youngster then go and buy yourself a DVD of Life on Mars instead - and please don't pay by credit card).

It might not seem that long ago, but the retail world was a very different place back then in the 1970s. No Trafford Centre, no Bluewater, no Meadowhall, and no Metro Centre. We just had town centres with shops that looked drab and unappealing compared to what we are used to today.

Generally speaking, shopping wasn't fun. Shopping was about necessity. People went to the shops because there were things they needed to buy. Once they'd bought them, they went home again. Shopping wasn't the social and leisure activity that it has become today.

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