December's cut in interest rates has had no effect on fixed-rate mortgage deals, with the average fixed-rate actually rising by 0.01%, according to Moneysupermarket.com.
The news follows a call from Prime Minister Gordon Brown for lenders to lower their standard variable rates (SVR) in line with changes to the base rate. Moneysupermarket.com figures show the average cost of a fixed-rate mortgage was 7.3% in early December last year, but has now risen to 7.31%, despite the base rate falling 0.25%. Moneysupermarket.com says the Government is likely to put further pressure on lenders to react to base rate changes, as around 70% of new mortgages are fixed-rate deals, compared with a tiny percentage of SVR mortgages. Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at Moneys...
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