Two main and quite alarming conclusions can be drawn from all this. One is that the UK – and perhaps other post-industrial economies – is finding it difficult to grow without relatively high levels of house price inflation, and corresponding increases in household indebtedness. It can be argued that these debts don’t really matter, because they are dwarfed by the size of household assets – houses, pensions, Isas and other forms of saving. Unfortunately, those with the debts and those with the assets tend to be two different groups of people.