Thursday 31st May 2007
Collectively, Britons have approximately £3.5 billion hidden under the mattress or stashed in a piggy bank, rather than tied up in investments, new research reveals.
According to Virgin Money the amount of money that Brits have sitting at home equals the entire GDP of the Bahamas, which is not gaining interest and actually losing value as inflation continues to rise.
Based on market interest rate forecasts, that £3.5 billion, if stored up until 2010 would lose around £200 million worth of purchasing power.
One in six people in the UK admit to stashing money in their house rather than banking it, with 15 per cent revealing they kept up to £1,000 cash in their homes last year and two per cent hoarding up to £5,000 at home.
Dr Alexander Koch, financial economist at Royal Holloway University, who carried out the research, commented "Keeping cash at home is not wise: the British are throwing away the opportunity to easily earn several hundreds of millions of pounds of interest over a few years."
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Savings
On the eve of what is sure to be Alistair Darling's most important political statement there is speculation and counter speculation about how he will address the situation of the UK economy next... 
