So two weeks have nearly elapsed and less than half of the UK's mortgage lenders have passed on the cut in interest rates to their customers despite continued calls from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) for the Bank of England to take action to help stimulate the housing market.
Should we be surprised at this? Probably not. It is not the first time the Bank has lowered rates only for lenders to appear to drag their heels over doing so themselves. But given how vocal so many in the mortgage industry have been recently about the need to lower rates and the dangers of a stagnant housing market, shouldn’t lenders now be doing more themselves to stimulate the market by acting sooner rather than later on the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee? Well not necessarily. It might be too early to criticise the banks and building societies for not passing on rate cu...
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