The number of people declaring themselves insolvent in Portsmouth has increased by nearly a third, an accountancy group has announced.

Some 565 petitioned for their own bankruptcy last year, compared to 429 the year before, according to KPMG.

Meanwhile, the figure for the Hampshire region last year was 1,356, a 45 per cent increase on the 936 cases in the previous year.

And Mark Sands, the director of personal insolvency at KPMG's south coast office, said that there was no "magic wand" to solve debt problems - the average each debtor owes is £52,000.

"With average debt levels as high as this, it is unsurprising that we are seeing more and more people choosing personal insolvency as the solution to their problems," he added.

Nationwide, 107,000 people were declared bankrupt last year - 44,000 of these chose an Individual Voluntary Agreement in order to escape the social stigma of declaring insolvency, according to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, reported This Is Money.