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

H&T Group’s pawnbroking pledge book was worth £84.2m at the end of June, up by 74% on the £48.3m a year earlier. Photograph: Alamy

A record number of people are pawning items to borrow money from Britain’s largest pawnbroker amid an escalating cost of living crisis.

H&T Group said “pledge lending” – lending secured against a customer’s valuable items such as watches or jewellery – was at record levels, in a trading update published on Monday.