Estate debt soars to £1.3 million

12:39pm Tuesday 4th November 2008

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Residents of a Bradford estate are so blighted by debt they can barely afford to pay for basic essentials without borrowing money.

An advice service which caters for residents of the Holme Wood estate has seen the amount of debt faced by people in the area spiral from £200,000 in 2007 to £1.3 million in 2008.

Alex Elthinstone, a debt adviser at Holme Wood Advice Centre, said: “People can’t even afford to heat their homes. It is not luxury spending – a luxury here might be nothing more than a McDonald’s meal.”

Mr Elthinstone said the centre had seen one or two repossessions and one or two bankruptcies per year on average over the past five years, but those figures had rocketed in 2008.

He said: “Since January this year there have been 13 repossessions. We have seen 11 evictions.

“This morning we dealt with the tenth bankruptcy this year.”

Mr Elthinstone said the Government needed to do more to regulate banks and loan companies to try and stop people getting so far into debt.

He said: “We saw a couple who had both been disabled for ten years.

“Their income was solely disability benefit, but they managed to accrue £40,000 in unsecured debt.

“They told the bank they were on benefits and they said to me they couldn’t believe the bank would give them the money if they couldn’t afford to pay it back.

“Thankfully they didn’t own their own home or they would have lost it.

“People need to seek advice as early as possible and not just hide their bills away in drawers.”

l The debt advice service holds free and confidential drop-in sessions on Mondays at the Holme Wood Clinic in Holme Wood Road from 10am to noon, at the Hopes Centre in Madison Avenue on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to noon and at the Highfield Resource Centre on Wednesdays from 10am to noon and 1pm to 3pm. To find out more call the team on (01274) 684279.

e-mail: tanya.orourke@telegraphandargus.co.uk