Average Brits ‘paying the price’

Average British consumers are the ones paying the price for the poor management of the economy by the current government, it has been claimed.

Phillip Hammond, a Treasury spokesperson for the Conservatives, is convinced that the Labour Party and particularly prime minister Gordon Brown are to blame for the debt management problems afflicting millions of ordinary Britons in the wake of the credit crunch.

The past decade saw UK consumers borrow money at an unprecedented rate and for many people the current economic squeeze is resulting in financial disaster, Mr Hammond suggested.

“Gordon Brown’s decade at the Treasury was characterised by years of easy credit, fuelling a house price boom and a mountain of debt,” he said.

“Now the chickens are coming home to roost.”

Mr Hammond’s comments came soon after the Council of Mortgage Lenders described the UK’s housing market as “rapidly worsening”.