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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Business
Kate Lally

Jeremy Hunt agrees plan to help struggling mortgage holders

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has agreed measures with lenders aimed at helping mortgage holders struggling with high interest rates but has resisted offering Government support.

After summoning banks and building societies to Downing Street to help quell the crisis, Mr Hunt said they agreed to implementing a 12-month minimum before repossessing homes.

He also said lenders agreed to allow struggling borrowers to extend the term of their mortgages or move to an interest-only plan temporarily "no questions asked".

READ MORE: Bank of England interest rate rise to 5% and what it means for you and your mortgage

It comes after the Bank of England raised interest rates by 0.5% - from 4.5% to 5% - on Thursday. It is the 13th rate rise in a row.

The 0.5 percentage point increase was the sharpest increase since February, surprising economists who had been expecting a smaller hike of 0.25 percentage points.

The Chancellor also said that ministers were looking "at everything" to bring down inflation. Mr Hunt was asked why the Government was blaming supermarkets for rising prices, given the Conservatives have been in power for 13 years.

"We are looking at everything that we can do to bring down high inflation caused by the aftermath of the pandemic, by Putin's aggressive illegal war in Ukraine," he told broadcasters.

"That doesn't mean as a government that we say we're not going to do anything. That's why we put big support packages in place and we will do what it takes to get to the other side and get high inflation out of our economy."

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