Britain’s mortgage timebomb - podcast

The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates again today, leaving millions of homeowners facing higher costs. Richard Partington reports

Britain's inflation rate remained at 8.7% in figures released yesterday. It means that when the Bank of England announces its interest rate decision at noon today, it will almost certainly raise the base rate from the current level of 4.5%.

As our economics correspondent Richard Partington tells Nosheen Iqbal, this rise will pile further pain on to mortgage holders, who are already smarting from successive interest rate rises. Many took on large debts to buy homes during an era of record-low borrowing costs and are now facing monthly bills hundreds of pounds higher than they budgeted for. It comes at a time when utility bills are pinching hard and food prices are at record highs.