Economists have been railing for years about the spiralling level of UK consumer debt - up to £1,400 billion as of last November - but according to National Savings and Investments those concerns belie a growing tendency among the modern British public to stash away ever-larger amounts of their cash in nest eggs.

NS&I's Century of Saving report took a retrospective look at the nation's evolving attitude towards savings and in the process threw up some unexpected results. By deducting all outgoing payments from total incomes recorded in 1957 and 2007, the government-owned bank found that gross household savings have risen from £1.1 billion half a century ago to £43.9 billion today - marking a 39-fold increase in the amount of cash Britons manage to put away each year.

As well as reflecting a healthy rise in affluency among the general public, analysts say the figures underscore how more and more consumers are acquiring the skills needed to attain long-term financial security for themselves and their families - something that may partly be related to public awareness campaigns but is also believed to be closely linked to the growth of online banking. The latest research by Abbey suggests more than half of all online bankers now log-in to their accounts every single evening, while three quarters profess a belief that such facilities gives them a better understanding of their finances.

And with technology continuing to seep further into our everyday lives, NS&I predicts the rush towards building up savings will continue to gather pace. Gross savings have grown 31 per cent in the eight years since the dot-com boom alone - and the bank's research suggests the savings ratio will rise to 7.5 per cent in the long-term, up from five per cent in 2006 and just 3.7 per cent in 2004.

Furthermore, NS&I says an estimated half of all adults will become regular savers by 2060, totally contravening some pundits' suggestions that the UK is fast becoming a land of insolvent, indebted spendaholics. Total savings in the UK are also expected to hit the £1 trillion mark by 2012 - and with the web ready to become the dominant medium for banking within a matter of years, maintaining regular day to day savings contributions to an internet savings account looks set to become part and parcel of everyday life for future British consumers.

That rosy outlook may seem a tough pill to swallow if you talk to the Citizens Advice Bureau - or any one of the nation's numerous, sorely overburdened credit charities for that matter - but as far as NS&I is concerned at least, Britons are finally coming round to the benefits of putting their day to day savings into a designated account.

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