Our lenders believe in responsible lending. That's why they look at more than your credit score when assessing applications for credit. They distinguish between three scenarios: high credit utilisation, low disposable income and high debt ratio.
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High credit utilisation

If you are using a relatively large proportion of the credit available to you, lenders may refuse to lend. To understand what credit utilisation is,, if you have a credit card with a £1,000 limit that you've spent £100 of, the credit utilisation of that card is 10%. 

As a rule of thumb, credit utilisation below 50% is often seen by lenders as a positive. Anything above that starts to turn them off.
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Low disposable income

Unfortunately, it's likely that you have little free cash, so lenders probably think you can't afford to borrow much. Lenders estimate how much you can repay each month after housing and other outgoings. They use local data from the Office for National Statistics to estimate what someone like you typically spends. They also factor in dependants and repayments for existing debt. So frustratingly, cutting spending won't help but paying off existing debts might.
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High debt ratio

This refers to your debt as a proportion of your gross income. This ratio only considers unsecured debt: credit cards, loans, catalogue accounts, store cards and overdrafts - not mortgages or other secured car loans. The less debt you have as a proportion of your income, the more lenders are likely to lend to you, as less of your income would already go to repay debt.

For example, if you have a high balance on your 0% purchase card, pay off some of the existing balance and then apply for credit later.