Credit Action said the number of debtors turning to it for advice has increased by one-third in the past year, Sky News reported Saturday. The group said the average British family now owes 9,500 pounds (more than $16,000).

Every day, an average of 104 houses or business premises are repossessed.

Roger Bootle, managing director of Capital Economics, said the era of easy credit is over.

"We've been through a period when the financial markets went bonkers and remarkably central banks and governments allowed them to and many of us were caught up in this," he told Sky News.