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:

1. The debt. How big it is, where it came from, and your household's share.
2. The cost. The yearly interest bill and what that money could pay for instead.
3. The drivers. Spending against income, and welfare split into pensioner, health and disability, and other working-age benefits.
4. 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