Hunt unveils new help for homeowners after crunch meeting with banks – live

Mortgage-holders will be offered new steps to help them deal with the hike in interest rates that leaves some facing extra payments of thousands of pounds a month, the chancellor has announced.

After a key meeting with lenders, Jeremy Hunt unveiled new measures including the ability to talk to their bank or building society without it affecting their credit score.

Borrowers will also be able to switch to interest-only loans or extend their mortgage, he said.

Why did politicians give up control of interest rates 26 years ago, asks John Rentoul.

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NatWest chief executive Alison Rose said it had been a “very productive meeting” as she left the Downing Street gathering with Jeremy Hunt.

“We’re doing everything we can to help customers and help with the anxieties,” she said.

Food prices are a global problem but Britain’s PM, politicains and monetary policymakers must bear the blame for making Britain’s worse than they otherwise might be – not the supermarkets, writes James Moore.

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A voluntary agreement with lenders will make it easier to get existing support, and ease the negative impact credit checks can have, according to the chancellor.

The Treasury said the banks had agreed to make sure mortgage-holders are able to:

change to interest-only payments extend the term of their mortgage – and switch back to their original deal within six monthstalk to arrange breaks from payments without any impact on their credit score.

These are all things consumer champion Martin Lewis had been pushing for.

The government also said banks had agreed to a minimum of 12 months before a home is repossessed without consent.

Mr Hunt said tackling inflation was his and the prime minister’s “number one priority”.

“To everyone who is worried about the high inflation that we have in this economy at the moment, tackling high inflation is the Prime Minister and my number one priority. We are absolutely committed to supporting the Bank of England to doing what it takes.

“We know the pressure that families are feeling. That’s why we’ve introduced big support packages, around £3,000 for the average household this year and last.

“We will do what it takes and we won’t flinch in our resolve because we know that getting rid of high inflation from our economy is the only way that we can ultimately relieve pressure on family finances and on businesses.”

Mr Hunt said he had made some “important” agreements with banks and lenders, following a key meeting.

“There are two groups of people that we are particularly worried about. The first are people who are at real risk of losing their homes because they fall behind in their mortgage payments,” he said.

“The second are people who are having to change their mortgage because their fixed rate comes to an end, and they’re worried about the impact on their family finances of higher mortgage rates.”

He said that banks and mortgage lenders had agreed “three very important things”.

“The first is that absolutely anyone can talk to their bank or their mortgage lender and it will have no impact whatsoever on their credit score. That’s really important. A lot of people worry about that.

“The second is that if you are anxious about the impact on your family finances and you change your mortgage to interest-only or you extend the term of your mortgage and you want to go back to your original mortgage deal, within six months, you can do so, no questions asked. No impact on your credit score.

“That, I think, is going to give people a lot of comfort and stop people worrying about having conversations with their banks when they are worried about their financial situation.

“The final thing is for people who are at risk of losing their home in that extreme situation, the banks and mortgage lenders have a number of things in place. The last thing that they want to do is to repossess a home, but in that extreme situation they have agreed there will be a minimum 12-month period before there’s a repossession without consent.”

Rishi Sunak is ruling out direct “fiscal intervention” from government to support under-pressure mortgage holders facing spiralling monthly costs, Adam Forrest reports.

While chancellor Jeremy Hunt is encouraging the banks to offer more support to customers, No 10 made clear the Treasury would not be offering any money or loans for those worst-hit by interest rate hikes.

Asked if the government would offer direct support, the PM’s spokesman said: “I think the prime minister was clear yesterday, as was the chancellor, in that we’re not looking to make any fiscal interventions in this space. We think that wouldn’t be appropriate.”

Supermarkets regard cutting prices as “very important”, according to a former boss of Asda, after the Prime Minister warned retailers about pricing “responsibly and fairly”.

Andy Clarke, who served as Asda’s chief executive officer between 2010 and 2016, said the big chains were “heavily focused” on competitive pricing as the industry hit back over suggestions it has looked to maintain profit margins by passing on inflated costs to customers.

Martin Lewis has said it seems “absolutely outrageous” that the rates savers are sitting on are lagging behind the rates being charged to borrowers.

The Money Saving Expert founder, who spoke to the chancellor earlier this week, said he had suggested lenders should be stopped from increasing their profits on the back of interest rates going up.

He said: “They’re putting borrowing up, but they’re not putting savings up by the same amount.

“That seems absolutely outrageous to me, because when the banks were struggling in 2007/2008, we, the state, the taxpayer, bailed them out.”