High price to pay for Bank chief ’s bungles

WITH grim inevitability, the Bank of England has hiked interest rates again to try to tame the scourge of inflation.

The 0.25 percentage point rise, to 1.25 per cent, is relatively modest, but still a bitter blow. Nudging rates up gradually, however, will cause less immediate pain.

Even so, it will be a mighty shock to mortgage payers who have come to take historically low rates for granted.

And with inflation tipped to peak at a wince-inducing 11 per cent, the misery is bound to get worse.

Indeed, there are concerns that if mortgage rates are ratcheted up much higher, homebuyers won’t cope. That would lead to mass repossessions and despair.

(And don’t hold your breath waiting for the rapacious high street banks to pass on rate rises to savers).

But what is most enraging is that families and businesses are suffering because of Bank governor Andrew Bailey’s calamitous misjudgments. When many people pointed out the looming danger of inflation last year, the central banker (annual salary: £575,000) buried his head in the sand.

If he hadn’t dithered over deploying his key weapon of raised interest rates then, he might not be panicking and playing catch-up in tackling the crisis now.

For his shameful complacency, we are all paying an excruciatingly high price.