Mortgage-holders will be offered a series of 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.
Mr Hunt, who resisted offering borrowers government support, said banks and building societies had agreed to implement a 12-month minimum term before repossessing homes.
And he said the lenders would allow struggling borrowers to extend the term of their mortgages or move to an interest-only plan temporarily, “no questions asked”.
The chancellor met the bosses of HSBC, Santander and Barclays among others, after a 0.5 percentage-point base-rate hike threatened further pain for struggling households.
He stressed that tackling stubbornly high inflation, which is behind the Bank of England’s repeated rate rises, is the “number one priority”.
Earlier, Downing Street doubled down on its pledge not to directly intervene to help mortgage holders struggling with spiralling costs.
