By Matt Rodda
Last month I wrote about the plight that faced so many families in Reading East because of the sky-rocketing inflation, the increasing interest rates and the continuing cost of living crisis.
Four weeks later and there has been another increase in interest rate from the Bank of England – with a bigger than expected jump to 5.00%.
It’s worrying times for millions of people who have a mortgage, a credit card or other borrowings and for tenants in buy-to-let properties too.
In my Reading East constituency, the average increase in mortgage costs will be around £4,000 a year for those who are tracker rates or those who will be coming to the end of their fixed period.
This is in addition to energy costs being £1,200 a year more today than they were 18 months ago and the cost of some staple food going up by 40%.
This is, we are told by the Government, a result of internal circumstances beyond their control with the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine being the go-to cause. And yet, both the United States and the Eurozone have lower inflation rates and with greater levels of support for those who need help.
This month, in the House of Commons, along with my colleagues in the official opposition, we presented an alternative to the ‘sit back and hope for the best’ approach course being chartered by the Government.
I backed a package of measures which would have required lenders to allow borrowers to switch to interest only mortgage payments for a temporary period or lenders to allow borrowers to lengthen the term of their mortgage period.
To protect homeowners from losing their property, Labour MPs proposed that it should be a requirement for lenders to wait a minimum of six months before initiating repossession proceedings. We asked that all this be allowed to happen without borrowers having any adverse impact on their credit scores.
And to help renters, we asked the Government to finally bring forward the legislation they promised that would end no-fault evictions and give peace of mind to millions of good tenants that they are secure on the house that they call home.
Our pleas, ultimately, fell on deaf ears with the Prime Minister declaring that instead of offering real help, we should all “hold our nerve”, something easier said than done when your home is at risk but Labour MPs will continue to push the Government to do what is right.
Matt Rodda is the Labour MP for Reading East
