Mortgage Market

Lord Livermore Excerpts

Wednesday 14th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

My Lords, every day brings more bad news for Britain’s mortgage holders. Two-year fixed-rate mortgages are now approaching 6%, and HSBC and Santander are just two lenders to have withdrawn all new mortgage deals from the market. The average mortgage holder is facing an increase in payments of £2,300 this year alone and borrowers are now being warned that mortgage rates are set to rise even further.

Interest rates first spiked dramatically last year when the disastrous mini-Budget sent markets into meltdown, but the two-year gilt yield has now exceeded even those levels above its US equivalent. With 1.5 million home owners set to come off fixed-rate mortgage deals this year, facing severe increases in their repayments, why is UK inflation not falling as quickly as the Government promised and why is inflation higher for longer in the UK than in many similar economies?