Soaring UK mortgage rates have pushed 320,000 adults into poverty, thinktank says

The 14 consecutive interest rate rises by the Bank of England led to a surge in mortgage rates from high street banks. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

As many as 320,000 UK adults have been pushed into poverty by soaring mortgage costs after the sharpest increase in interest rates since the 1980s, a leading thinktank has said.

Highlighting the damage caused by Britain’s exploding mortgage timebomb, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said individuals who needed to renew their home loans or take out new ones in the past two years had experienced a sharp fall in their disposable income.