Tuesday 11th September, 2007 

How many people buy houses with cash? Unless you were one of the lucky ones to have made a killing on the property market and are now ready to downsize, you are probably a homeowner thanks mainly to a lender who has you in his vice-like grip until the end of a long and expensive repayment term. Like the majority of Britons.

With house prices at record levels and many areas suffering from the shortage of affordable housing, is it any wonder that consumer debt rose by 48% from 2001 until 2006? And the largest component of consumer debt? Mortgages, of course.

These figures from Research and Markets recent report on Debt Management predict that debt levels will see further rises, possibly for the next four years. But with such rises, is it any wonder that debt levels are causing so much discussion and unease?

So what happens when debt gets too much? In previous times, bankruptcy really held the only key to escape from insolvency. Thankfully, there are now less punitive alternatives. Chris Tapp, from the charity Credit Action, suggested recently that IVA's can help debtors to be viewed more favourably, as they must commit to clearing their debts.

With interest rate rises, it is almost inevitable that more borrowers will default and more people will have unmanageable debt problems. The growing debt management industry has a crucial role in minimising the numbers of people becoming insolvent and helping those who have found out how much debt is too much debt.