Pressure grows for mortgage support fund

MPs have urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to hold an emergency summit in Downing Street with banks and mortgage lenders to discuss support for homeowners as deals continue to disappear from the market.

HSBC and Coventry Building Society were the latest lenders to announce plans to remove and reprice products yesterday, following providers including Santander and Natwest.

It comes after speculation that the Bank of England is set to increase interest rates further, hitting mortgage borrowers with even higher increases to their monthly payments when they renew.

This could prompt forced sales as homeowners look to downsize or move somewhere cheaper to reduce their mortgage repayments.

The Liberal Democrats are now calling for an emergency support fund for mortgage borrowers, which would provide temporary grants to those most at risk of losing their homes.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said: “This Conservative government has unleashed mortgage hell for millions of homeowners but isn’t lifting a finger to help.

“Sunak is totally out of touch with the concerns of people across the country worried sick about how they will afford their monthly mortgage payments.

“The Prime Minister should haul the banks into Downing Street and discuss what extra support can be given to homeowners on the brink. The very least that Conservative Ministers should do is take responsibility for the mess they’ve created instead of sitting on the sidelines.”

The issue of rising mortgage rates and disappearing deals was also raised in Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday when Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer questioned why Sunak was instead so focused on peerage disputes with his predecessor Boris Johnson.