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Latest debt figures - what's changing?

We've just seen the latest 'lending to individuals' figures from the Bank of England, showing us how the personal debt situation in the UK changed in June.

Usually, these figures tend to show that both secured and unsecured debt increased over the month in question. This time, however, there was a bit of a surprise - the amount of secured debt actually shrank over the month, as people collectively repaid more secured debt than they took on.

Throughout the month of June, the total amount of debt 'secured on dwellings' fell by around £100 million. It's quite unusual to see a decline here - the last time this happened was six months ago, in December last year, when secured debt dropped by around £300 million.

Unsecured debt, meanwhile, increased by about £400 million in June, pretty much in line with the other monthly changes we've seen recently. About half of this extra unsecured debt was on credit cards.

A spokesperson for the IVA Advisory Centre commented on the figures: "It's important to realise that these are net figures, which means they show how much was lent out minus how much was repaid. So a negative figure can mean people are repaying more, or lenders are lending less - or both."