Figures calculated by the government’s National Statistician, Karen Dunnell, show that during 2007 the average household owed debt (including mortgages, credit cards and personal loans), totalling 164 per cent of total household gross disposable income, an increase of almost 60 per cent since 1997 (House of Commons Hansard Written Answers, 2007). Although some of this increase can be explained simply by the rapid increase in house prices, these figures also show unsecured debt (excluding mortgages) reaching 39 per cent of household gross disposable income, compared to 28 per cent in 1997.