Easy access to credit and less-strict bankruptcy rules have been blamed for a huge increase in the number of people declaring themselves insolvent.

Official figures released today reveal that personal bankruptcies surged almost 40 per cent in the last three months of 2005 compared with the same period last year, while the number of people taking out Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) more than doubled, rising by 117 per cent.

IVAs allow debtors to stave off bankruptcy by coming to an agreement with creditors to pay off a percentage of their debts over a given period.

The DTI said there were 13,501 bankruptcies and 6,960 IVAs in the last quarter, representing the biggest jump in insolvencies since the early 1990s recession. And in separate figures also released today, the Department of Constitutional Affairs revealed that the number of court actions for home repossesions surged 50 per cent in 2005.

The rise in debt problems has been blamed on the recent credit boom. Collectively British consumers now owe more than £1 trillion on mortgages, credit cards, loans and overdrafts.

Steve Treharne, head of personal insolvency at KPMG, said: "The bankruptcy bubble is getting bigger but seems unlikely to burst for some time yet.

"The levels and availability of credit have been increasing for some time and recent figures from the Bank of England show that this trend is continuing.

"The more people incur credit, it is inevitable that this will be followed by increases in personal insolvencies."

But debt charity the Consumer Credit Counselling Services said the rise was more likely to mean that a greater number of people were finding solutions to their debt problems, rather than showing that more people were getting into trouble.

Other analysts said the sharp rise in the figures was in part a reflection of recent changes in legislation that have made it more attractive for people to register as insolvent.

But Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight, said that even allowing for less-strict bankruptcy rules, the very sharp jump in insolvencies highlighted the fact that many people had borrowed to their limits.

"This is further highlighted by the substantial increase in mortgage repossession orders in the fourth quarter," he said.

"And with economic growth likely to remain below trend in the near term at least and unemployment set to continue rising, there is a very real danger that individual insolvencies and mortgage repossessions will climb further over the coming months," he added.

Today's official figures also showed that there were 3,187 company liquidations in England and Wales in the fourth quarter of 2005. This was a decrease of 5.5 per cent on the previous quarter and an increase of 8.5 per cent on the same period a year ago.

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