Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as Lib Dems call for emergency mortgage protection fund
What steps could government take to help mortgage borrowers?Average mortgage rate for two-year fixed deal edges closer to 6%
Atom Bank is also lifting its mortage rates today – by between 0.25% to 0.6% on certain products.
Mark Mullen, Atom’s chief executive, says the bank raised rates because the financial markets are pricing in further increases in Bank of England base rate.
I think that the current interest rate environment is likely to remain there-or-there abouts where we are today for much longer than perhaps people might wish.
So there’s lots that banks can do, but sure, they absolutely needs support.
The reality is there’s pain all around in a high-inflationary environment.
We’ve already seen the number of people’s homes been reposessed going up massively – surging by 50% in the latest quarter, and my worry is that we’re going to see lots of other families losing their homes, and we could be in a spiral of repossessions.
The banks have got to play a bigger role. They need to step in and help people who are in trouble.
If we don’t give that sort of help to those people, you’d see a spiral down and it will hit the whole economy.
