Demand at UK’s biggest pawnbroker at record high amid cost of living crisis

A report variety of individuals are pawning gadgets to borrow cash from Britain’s largest pawnbroker amid an escalating value of residing disaster.

H&T Group stated “pledge lending” – lending secured towards a buyer’s beneficial gadgets similar to watches or jewelry – was at report ranges, in a buying and selling replace revealed on Monday.

The pawnbroker’s progress has been prompted by clients’ squeezed funds amid 40-year excessive inflation, in keeping with Shore Capital, an funding financial institution. Shopper costs index inflation hit 9.1% in Might, the very best degree since February 1982, on the again of wide-ranging value rises fuelled by disruption from the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Borrowing from H&T has exceeded the pre-pandemic excessive with no rest of lending standards.

“This robust demand, in our view, displays the impression of the price of residing disaster in addition to the withdrawal of competitors from the unsecured high-cost credit score house, together with by the current closure of two of the main home-collected credit score companies,” wrote Gary Greenwood, a Shore Capital analyst.

He added that the price of residing disaster was prone to proceed to help demand for pawnbrokers. Economists count on family funds to be hit additional within the autumn, when the UK’s vitality value cap will soar to replicate increased costs on international wholesale markets.

H&T’s pawnbroking pledge ebook was value £84m on the finish of June, up by 74% on the £48m a yr earlier and a rise of just about £20m for the reason that finish of December when it stood at £67m. The corporate stated there was “progress throughout the group’s buyer base and in all geographies”.

H&T, which was based in 1897 in London by Messrs Harvey and Thompson, has 256 shops and greater than 1,400 employees. It additionally presents journey cash, cheque cashing and gold buy. These different companies have benefited the corporate, with demand for gold “buoyant” due to rising costs, and the return of worldwide journey after pandemic restrictions which means a powerful restoration for overseas alternate.

Chris Gillespie, H&T’s chief government, stated: “I’m delighted with the progress we’ve got made within the first half of 2022, and the momentum with which we enter the second half of the yr.”