One of the most influential consumer property groups has made an impassioned plea to the Bank of England not to raise interest rates.
Paula Higgins, chief executive of the HomeOwners Alliance, says: “Our message to the Bank of England ahead of Thursday's meeting is simple: stop raising interest rates now.
“While Governor Andrew Bailey has given some hope that we are near the end of the relentless succession of increasing interest rates, the speculation is rates will rise again on Thursday, which will leave millions of homeowners bearing the brunt of the economic policy to battle inflation – yet again.
“This needs to stop now. Raising rates from 5.25 to 5.5 per cent would mark the highest level since 2007 and will leave homeowners open to even longer periods of misery.”
Higgins says soaring mortgage costs are already devastating homeowners' carefully laid financial plans, with the so-called Mortgage Charter, not making any fundamental improvement for owners.
She continues: “Most homeowners will struggle along meeting sky-high mortgage payments rather than use the Charter to stretch their loan repayment over a longer period of time and ultimately pay more to the lenders in interest. It's yet another win-win for lenders at the cost of homeowners.
“We're worried that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of the impact this punishing series of rate rises is having on homeowners.
“There are 14m adults over 20 with a mortgage according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, and many households will be shielded by their current fixed rate mortgage. But eventually their mortgage deals - many of which would have been fixed at historically low levels of one to two per cent - will end and they will be faced by crippling costs.
“The uncertainty of the current cycle of interest rate rises is also very damaging. Homeowners having to remortgage don't know whether to act now and fix or hold off. People need to know the situation is stable before they can act.
“This is why we're calling on the Bank of England to stop this attack on homeowners.”
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Given todays inflation figures 🤔 I can see another rise 🤷♂️
The Bank of England are not thinking about “People” yes we have inflation, but they should not penalize existing borrowers with theses crazy increases. People are trapped, they have no option but to pay or loose their homes or investment properties. Control new spending/borrowing, because new borrowers will know what they are signing up for.
Andrew Bailey and our incompetent Government will destroy our economy and just to put that in context, I have always been a Conservative voter, now I wish there was an alternative.
Makes no difference really what happens tomorrow whether 25 pts rise or not. We all now know its the peak with good inflation numbers today, and will be the final rise. The UFC turf war between lenders has already started , already seen half a percent come off some BTL trackers today.
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