New Debt Figures From UK And The Hidden Debt Bombshell

The ONS has published its estimate of the official Public Sector Net Debt as of September 2009.

This shows that the offical government debt is now £825 billion, an increase of £20 billion since August 2009.

However, as Brooks Newmark explains in The Hidden Debt Bombshell (updated to include the latest ONS data), the official figures do not take into account:

• the full cost of projects financed through the PFI (£139 billion)

• unfunded public sector pension liabilities (£1,104 billion)

• contingent liabilities such as Network Rail (£22 billion)

• the cost of recent interventions in the financial sector (£130 billion).

These hidden liabilities total £1,395 billion (100% of GDP). The true public debt is therefore £825 billion + £1,395 billion = £2,220 billion (159% of GDP).

This is an increase of £366 billion since last year – equivalent to £1 billion a day or £700,000 a minute – when the true level of debt was £1.85 trillion (127% of GDP). A debt clock illustrating the rate of increase can be found here.

Brooks Newmark comments:

“The Government has been borrowing £700,000 a minute in our name. Every day, it is taking on £40 of debt for each and every household in the land. No one has asked us if we are happy with this extraordinarygrowth in public debt. It is now time for the Government to be honest  about the state of the nation’s finances.”

The true level of government debt is not £805 billion as currently reported by the ONS but £2,200 billion (i.e. £85,610 per household), demonstrates Brooks Newmark MP in The Hidden Debt Bombshell published on Monday 19 October by the Centre for Policy Studies.

For the official figures do not take into account:

• the full cost of projects financed through the PFI (£139 billion)

• unfunded public sector pension liabilities (£1,104 billion)

• contingent liabilities such as Network Rail (£22 billion)

• the cost of recent interventions in the financial sector (£130 billion).

These hidden liabilities total £1,395 billion (100% of GDP). The true public debt is therefore £805 billion + £1,395 billion = £2.2 trillion (157% of GDP).

This is an increase of £346 billion since last year – almost £1 billion a day or £700,000 a minute – when the true level of debt was £1.85 trillion (127% of GDP). A debt clock illustrating the rate of increase can be found here.

Brooks Newmark’s report can be download free here.

ONS Announcement

Topics: Britain, debt, deficit, Economy, England, ONS, Public Sector, recession, spending, UK, United Kingdom

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