UK Debt Clock
A single-page explainer of UK public debt, built only from official statistics.
Live site: https://vandoo-lab.github.io/uk-debt-clock/
A live clock of UK government gross debt, then four steps that build to a conclusion:
- The debt. How big it is, where it came from, and your household's share.
- The cost. The yearly interest bill and what that money could pay for instead.
- The drivers. Spending against income, and welfare split into pensioner, health and disability, and other working-age benefits.
- The outlook. The OBR forecast under current plans against the recent trend, and the risks to it.
Run it
It is a static site. Locally, serve it from the project folder:
python3 -m http.server 8765
Then open http://localhost:8765.
Update the data
scripts/build_data.py downloads the source files into data/raw/ and regenerates data/data.js.
python3 -m venv .venv && .venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
rm -f data/raw/ons_*.csv && .venv/bin/python -I scripts/build_data.py
What updates automatically
The GitHub Action in .github/workflows/refresh-data.yml runs daily from the 19th to the 28th of each month, around the ONS public sector finances release. It rebuilds data/data.js and commits it when the figures change, and GitHub Pages then republishes the site. This keeps the latest net and gross debt, debt-to-GDP and the clock's starting point current. You can also run it by hand from the repository's Actions tab ("Refresh data", then "Run workflow").
Scheduled monthly update
A scheduled Claude task on the owner's Mac follows UPDATING.md after each ONS release. It publishes the routine monthly figures, and prepares Budget and other non-routine updates on a branch for review.
What needs a person
- Each month: the year-to-date borrowing against the OBR forecast (
YTD_VS_OBR in scripts/build_data.py) comes from the text of the ONS bulletin. Update those numbers after each release.
- After each Budget or fiscal event: point the OBR databank and DWP benefit table URLs in
SOURCES at the new editions, delete the old files from data/raw/, and run the script on your own computer so it downloads the new ones. Commit the new files: the OBR and DWP websites block GitHub's servers, so the monthly workflow uses the copies saved in the repository.
- Each July: update the PESA spending figures (
PESA_2025_26) from the new PESA release.
- When ONS publishes new population or household estimates: update
POPULATION_MID_2025 and HOUSEHOLDS_2025.
Hosting
The site is static and runs on GitHub Pages: Settings → Pages → Deploy from a branch → main, folder / (root). The empty .nojekyll file tells GitHub to serve the files as they are.
Sources
- ONS Public sector finances, series HF6W, HF6X and BKPX
- OBR Public finances databank (September 2026) and Economic and fiscal outlook (March 2026)
- DWP Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2026 (Spring Forecast 2026)
- HM Treasury PESA 2026, Table 5.2
- ONS mid-2025 population estimates and Families and households 2025
