West of England homeowners face hike in mortgage rates

West of England homeowners on a fixed-rate mortgage are heading for a sharp increase in their monthly payments after a string of big-name lenders hiked the cost of home loans.

The mortgage rate hikes from the likes of HSBC, Santander and TSB represent a reversal from earlier in the year in a move regional Mayor Dan Norris described as a “sucker punch” for the 106,000 West households with fixed-term mortgages ending by September 2024, and so face the prospect of payments soaring.

The average two-year fixed rate mortgage was 2.44% in February 2022 – but now sits at over double at 5.74%.

This means families coming off their low-rate fixed mortgage deals could face a repayments rise of nearly £1,800, new analysis Dan Norris’s West of England Mayoral Combined Authority suggests, meaning a total ‘mortgage bomb’ hitting the region of around £190 million in the next seven months.

The region’s directly elected Labour Mayor Dan Norris says: “This will come as extremely worrying news to thousands in the West of England already struggling with a frightening cost-of-living crisis and an economy that has tipped into recession.

“It just goes to show the ticking financial time bomb that Liz Truss set off when she crashed the economy hasn’t gone away – in fact, it’s about to blow up the finances of another 106,000 West of England households.”

The Mayor who is responsible for the regional economy says the knock-ons continue to be disruptive across a range of sectors as residents feeling the pinch cut back on days out and meals in restaurants.

He says: “The West of England has huge potential. We could be focused on building jobs and industries of the future – but instead, the Tories crashed our economy and left working people paying the price and our economy badly weakened.”