Mortgage up £8k in a year
Truss blamed for £150-a-week rise in home loan bill
MIKEY SMITH
HOMEOWNERS are being hit by an average rise of almost £8,000 in mortgage interest payments after borrowing rates trebled in two years, Labour warns.
Analysis found the average household is shelling out an extra £150 every week – £7,800 per year.
It means the average person getting a new mortgage deal now pays £223 a week in mortgage interest payments alone – up from £71 in 2021.
People with a 75% loan-to-value mortgage faced a typical interest rate of 4.63% in April, which is three times the 1.49% charged two years earlier. Labour blamed skyrocketing rates on former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous minibudget during Liz Truss’s brief stint as PM last year.
Hundreds of fixed-rate mortgage deals were axed from the market last weekend, with some lenders pulling their RECKLESS Liz Truss
Woman in flooded Kherson entire range. Pat Mcfadden, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: “Homeowners continue to suffer thanks to the Tories’ reckless economic gamble.
“This Tory mortgage penalty has increased the cost of home ownership, causing huge worry for families.”
The Treasury said: “Central banks around the world are raising interest rates to combat high inflation. We are providing around £3,300 per household to help with rising costs.”
KEITH PERRY
A PLAN to house asylum seekers in a cruise ship near Liverpool has been ditched after port officials opposed the move.
A Government source said the vessel was due to house 500 men in Birkenhead but port owner Peel Ports raised objections.
It came after it emerged last month Royal Docks refused to moor a barge for asylum seekers near City Airport in East London.
The Government is using barges and former military barracks in a bid to cut a £6million daily hotel bill for housing migrants and deter them arriving in small boats.
But even some Tory MPS oppose plans, with Richard Drax saying the barge planned to arrive in his constituency of South Dorset this month would be “a quasi-prison”.
And the Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday urged a delay on its arrival.
Speaking in Portland, the Most Reverend Justin Welby urged further consultation, saying the move does not have “buyin” from the community.
PM Rishi Sunak said last week the Government had acquired two more vessels and insisted plans to “stop the boats” were working.
Our article ‘Transplant joy for Freya, 17’, 4 June, included a past photo of a Freya Heddington, who received a heart transplant in 2020, yet described her as “a 17-year-old who received a double organ heart-lung transplant”.
In fact, this description was in relation to a Freya Potter, and not the girl depicted in the article.
We would like to clarify this and sincerely apologise for this error.