Stevie Jackson was striding purposefully across Selby’s pretty marketplace on a warm Thursday lunchtime when she heard the news. As she stared down at her phone, her sunny disposition gave way to a look of anxiety. The Bank of England had just increased interest rates by another 0.5 percentage points, a record 13th consecutive rise and probably not the last.
Jackson has two young children and works as a cleaner at a local flour mill. She and her partner, who also has children, recently extended their mortgage by another 25 years to a total of 45. That way they hoped they could spread the payments and afford the other rising costs of family life, such as food and energy. “I have to feed the kids,” she says.
