BRITAIN’S national debt is rising at a rate of more than £5,000 a second thanks to Chancellor George Osborne’s failed economic agenda, incompetence and his refusal to regulate banks and financial institutions, economists said yesterday.

The accumulation of interest has taken government debt above £1.5 trillion.

And when money owed through payment of foreseeable bills such as pensions and other commitments is added, debts stand at more than £4 trillion.

Debt collection agency National Debt Clock Co, which collated the figures, estimates that the accumulation of interest on government debt is now running at a whopping £5,170 a second.

Economist Ann Pettifor, who predicted the 2008 financial crash and sits on shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s economic advisory panel, said growing public and private-sector debt is "directly caused by an economic model based on liberal finance — that is the unregulated, unmanaged financial system."

She said the laissez-faire approach has been responsible for recurring financial crises since the early 1970s, including the 2007-9 crash, yet Mr Osborne is promoting it "with great gusto."

Ms Pettifor warned: "We are therefore heading for another financial crisis, but this time without the monetary tools used by central banks during the last crisis. The next debt-fuelled financial crisis is therefore likely to be far worse."

But there are solutions, she suggested — starting with ditching the current unregulated financial system.

"Debt will have to be written off or restructured. There may even have to be a debt ‘jubilee,’ where you write off debt periodically," she said.

"Finally, the government will have to use fiscal policy to create well-paid employment, and to generate the income needed to pay down debts and revise the economy."

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady agreed that Mr Osborne’s "failure to get wages growing sooner and stronger is not only racking up public debt, it is depriving our public services of investment."

The debt works out at £24,148 for every man, woman and child in Britain, an average of £58,424 per household.

When the Tory-Lib-Dem coalition took power in 2010, national debt stood at £960bn.