PEOPLE living in a Scottish new town have the highest levels of personal debt out of anywhere in the country, according to the first detailed postcode data on bank lending.

Figures released by the British Bankers Association (BBA), based on personal loans by high street banks, show East Kilbride tops a list of areas with the largest amount of debt.

According to the figures, the total accumulative debt in the South Lanarkshire town is more than £2.8 million, pushing it to the top of a table of borrowing, followed by Livingston in East Lothian.

Other areas that make up the top ten include two postcode regions in Falkirk, two in Kircaldy, Fife, three areas of Edinburgh, and one area of Glasgow and one of Aberdeen.

Lerwick, in Shetland, was said to have the lowest level of personal debt in Scotland, while the total number of personal loans across the country was estimated to be more than £2 billion.

Across the UK, Leeds was identified as the city with the highest level of debt, with personal loans said to total £2,105,964, or £1516 per adult inhabitant. Next was Manchester, where the accumulative level of debt was £765,893, or £1408 per resident.

Participating lenders who provided data on the personal loans included Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, RBS, Santander UK, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, and Nationwide Building Society.

l Reforms of the bankruptcy law in Scotland which could see people have to repay their debts for a longer period have been branded Dickensian by Labour.

North East MSP Jenny Marra hit out at proposals from the Scottish Government, which could see people who become bankrupt made to repay debts for four years instead of three.