Budget: Darling calls for 'flexible' long-term mortgages

He says long-term protection from interest rates is vital to ensure more people get onto the property ladder and stay there. Darling wants lenders to offer more 15, 20 and 25-year mortgages, and he also wants them to be more flexible. He also announced he will be publishing a report today, detailing his recommendations to increase the availability of long-term finance. "Lenders must have access to stable and low cost funding so we want to bring together lenders, the Treasury and the FSA to make banking solutions available," he says. "Most people have short-term fixed rate mortgages ...