Over the past few years, our economy has become bloated; due to Brits bingeing on debt and not done anything to work off the excess, claims Reform.

A new report from the independant think tank reported that it is not just consumer borrowing that has caused the countrys coffers to become corpulent with debt, as the public structural budget deficit has become the fourth highest of all countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The group states that Britains trade deficit is continuing to burgeon, while public spending programmes are based on out-of-date and over-optimistic forecasts for gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Meanwhile, this tendency to rely on cheap credit cards and cheap loans to support spending habits has produced an economy that is unfit and working inefficiently.

It warned that in the coming years, the average taxpaying family will pay around 4,000 pounds to rebalance the national debt, equivalent to 100 billion pounds in tax contributions every year. So too, it noted that this tax increase - amounting to 6.6 per cent of GDP - does not take into account the additional burden which will be borne by further fiscal stimulation packages.

Ahead of the pre-Budget report, which will be announced on Monday 24th November by Alistair Darling, warned that simply injecting more public money into the banking industry will have little lasting effect on the state of the countrys economy. Reform also warns, that cutting public expenditure on vital long-term development programmes is equally ill-advised, claiming that recent history shows, cutting spending will inevitably lead to increased investment a few years down the line.

The group insisted that there is only one course of action that will relieve the strain of the national debt: "In order to move beyond the obese economy, Britain has to consume less and work more. Households need a sense of direction towards a higher saving, lower tax economy. The short-term objective is the same as the long-term path to economic growth - to increase productivity. This should be the theme of the Pre-Budget Report and of Budget 2009."

Furthering this, it called on the chancellor to focus on three key objectives when delivering his report: public sector reform, private sector productivity and personal productivity.

On the last note, the group insisted that individuals will be vital to economic recovery and as such, the government must provide support for people to help them to stop relying on personal loans and other forms of credit and start spending their own money.

Motley Fool, the independent financial advice site stated that millions of Brits are simply not prepared for a recession; as a result the need for a debt consolidation loan for many individuals will most likely increase over the next few months. Taking out a debt consolidation loan can prove to be an effective way to balance those financial commitments.