Home owners will not get taxpayer-funded help with soaring mortgage payments, hints Michael Gove

HOME owners will be denied direct help to pay their spiralling mortgage payments, Michael Gove indicated yesterday.

Taxpayer-funded support would only make the problem worse, the Levelling Up Secretary claimed.

PA

Home owners will NOT get taxpayer-funded help with soaring mortgage payments, hints Michael Gove[/caption]

It would mean interest rates and inflation staying higher for longer, he said.

Mr Gove told the BBC: “If you spend public money in order to deal with particular crises, you are inevitably adding to the stock of debt — that puts pressure on interest rates.

“The worst thing would be to spend money to provide a short-term relief, which would then mean our overall finances were in a weaker position and interest rates and inflation were higher for longer.”

Tory MPs are worried soaring rates will lose them the next election.

The Bank of England is likely to raise its base rate again this week as inflation remains stubbornly high at 8.7 per cent.

It is 4½ per cent but ex-deputy governor Sir Charlie Bean said he expected it to hit six per cent.

A Treasury source said: “The most effective policy to help mortgage holders is to bear down on inflation.”