SAVERS in Kirkwall in Orkney and Harrow in London typically have the highest Isa balances in the country, according to data based on money held with one of Britain's biggest building society.

Nationwide, which analysed how much money people have saved into its accounts, said the two locations are the only areas of the UK where its savers have an average Isa balance of more than £15,000.

The average balance in Harrow is £15,476 and the typical amount put aside in Kirkwall is £15,442.

People living in London and the surrounding commuter belt as well as those in Scotland dominated the list, with Bromley, Ilford, Kingston-upon-Thames, Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead featuring highly.

At the other end of the spectrum, Nationwide found that the lowest balances can also be found in London. Savers with the east London postcode of E have the lowest average Isa balance at £10,182.

New rules introduced last July gave people a more generous and a more flexible Isa allowance.

The annual Isa allowance is currently set at £15,000. All of this can be saved, tax-free, in cash, or all in stocks and shares, or any combination of the two. The annual limit will increase when the new tax year starts in April.

Richard Napier, Nationwide's divisional director of savings, said: "According to our own internal data, it is savers in Greater London, the South East and Scotland that are really making the most of their Isa allowance, with the average Isa balance in these regions higher than anywhere else in the UK.

"With the annual allowance increasing to £15,240 in April, we would hope to see those average balances increase over the next 12 months."

The research emerged as a separate survey showed Scots are bottom of the league when it comes to making savings as rising levels of Christmas consumer confidence have encouraged people to spend more.

The latest Halifax Savings Review for the last three months of last year shows that just 63 per cent of Scots saved, the lowest rate of all the UK regions.

The south east topped the table with 75 per cent followed by north England (70 per cent), Midlands (68 per cent) and Wales & the South West (67 per cent).

The Halifax review showed that across the UK, savings suffered a setback in the run up to Christmas as a third of those with savings admitted not adding anything to their nest egg, while one in four savers had to unexpectedly raid their accounts to cover additional spending.

While Halifax say the average savings balance in Scotland stands at £17,708, the second highest in the British regions, the average amount saved per person in final quarter of 2014 stood at £618 in Scotland, £148 below the UK average.

And the typical amount raided from savings by Scots was £1,405 during the three months, was £1,169, £235 more than the UK average.

The main reason for dipping into savings was for a holiday or to cover the costs of emergency home or car repairs with one in seven (14 per cent) raiders stating one of these two reasons.

Additionally, one in 10 cited overspending on their current account (11 per cent), and the same on impulse gifts or luxury shopping (11 per cent) indicating that overspending at Christmas was likely a key factor.

A Halifax spokesman said: "Rising levels of employment and improving consumer confidence in 2014 will have boosted spending, particularly in the latter months of the year; however it seems to have had a knock-on effect with low levels of savings over the same period."

The report comes a week after the Financial Conduct Authority watchdog said Britain's £700bn savings account market offers a raw deal for consumers.

In many cases, the interest rate on their accounts has been 0.5 per cent or lower - the same as the Bank of England's base rate.

The regulator said banks and building societies should be given clearer information and helped to switch to better accounts.