A GROWING number of people in the south east are finding it increasingly difficult to save, a survey has found.

The survey, from Sainsbury’s Finance, found 14 per cent of people living in the region were saving less than they were a year ago.

The fall in saving means more than a third of people in the region, a total of 34 per cent, now have nothing at all saved for a "rainy day".

But Rob Procter, deputy chief executive of Kent Reliance Building Society, said that while the figures were probably accurate for financial services as a whole, their own trade in savings accounts had been especially brisk since the Northern Rock crisis.

He said: "This is not reflected in our own figures at all. A lot of people are seeing building societies as safe places for their savings. People see us as a safe haven where their money is as safe as it was for their parents and grandparents.

"As far as we are concerned, more people are saving with us, rather than less."

Many new accounts aimed at the over-60s had been opened, he said, and childrens’ accounts, often paid into by grandparents, had seen a similar rise.