UK government urged to help mortgage holders as rates keep rising; company insolvencies jump 40% – as it happened

Lib Dems call for emergency mortgage protection fund, as new data shows two-year fixed rate mortgage has jumped to 5.98% and confidence in Bank of England falls

• What steps could government take to help mortgage borrowers?
• Average mortgage rate for two-year fixed deal edges closer to 6%

If mortgage rates do hit 6% thent homeowners will be spending 23.6% of their incomes on mortgage repayments, the most since 1991, Neal Hudson, a property market analyst at BuiltPlace, has calculated (via The Times).

He's also made this excellent chart, showing how effective mortgage costs are close to their levels in the 1980s even though interest rates are lower: