The UK’s households are borrowing more money than they are saving for the first time since the so-called “Lawson boom” in the Eighties, the credit rating agency Fitch has warned.

British families are, on average, savers, putting money aside, usually in a bank account, which lenders then loan out to fund business investment. But for the past nine months households have been in deficit, which is storing up problems for the UK economy, Fitch said in a report published on Tuesday.

“It is typically the household sector that does the saving,” said Brian Coulton, Fitch’s chief economist. “That has nearly always been the pattern in the UK, apart from one quarter in the late Eighties, at the peak of Lawson boom, where it moved into a deficit, and we know that didn’t end well.”

Consumer spending has helped to support the economy in recent years. But it has also left UK families with more debt than the average household faced three decades ago.

“Having made the effort to keep consumer spending going by drawing down savings quite sharply, it has now left the UK consumer in a vulnerable position if we get any negative shocks,” Mr Coulton warned.