Mini-Budget U-turn fails to halt mortgage rises

Banks have continued to increase the cost of mortgages, despite the new chancellor’s efforts to restore confidence. NatWest, for example, will today increase rates on two and five-year fixed-rate deals by up to 0.86 percentage points. Its cheapest two-year fix for those buying a home will go up from 5.97% to 6.37%, an increase of £52 a month on £200,000 to £1,247. TSB said it would increase rates on two-year fixed deals for existing customers by up to 0.95 percentage points and up to 1.4 points for buy-to-let landlords, while Barclays will put up the cost of some low-deposit mortgages to more than 6%. The two-year swap rate, an expectation of the Bank of England base rate in the future used to determine the cost of fixed-rate mortgages, is down to 4.69%. However, it is still above where it was before the mini-Budget. The Times (£)