A mortgage timebomb is poised to detonate. Since the Bank of England raised interest rates from 0.1 per cent to 4.5 per cent, research by the Resolution Foundation think-tank suggests that just a third of mortgage holders have been impacted. But that will not last.
Homeowners in the capital face a cataclysmic £1.4bn rise in repayments over the next three years as more and more come off their old fixed deals and are faced with vastly more expensive replacements. In the foreboding words of Resolution Foundation senior economist Simon Pittaway, “there is still a lot more pain to come.”
The think-tank estimates that roughly 17 per cent of the total stock of outstanding UK mortgage debt is held in London. And many will soon be coming off fixed deals with rates of around two per cent to face current average rates some two-and-a-half times higher. Yet things could get dearer still if last week’s jump in gilt yields feeds into higher interest rates, as now seems likely.
Even if repossessions are kept to a minimum, the economic fallout will be substantial. Ever higher mortgage repayments will act as a further squeeze on household spending, at a time when inflation remains sticky and many are already struggling to make ends meet. It seems the catastrophic fall in living standards is set to go on.
Right move on vaping
It is a challenge to walk around London without encountering the taste and smell of second-hand vapes.
The scientific consensus is clear: vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking. Switching to vaping, while not risk-free, reduces exposure to carcinogenic toxins as well as the causes of heart attacks and strokes.
However, vaping poses a particular danger to young people. We do not yet fully understand the long-term risks but the hazard to young lungs and brains is greater, while evidence suggests that adolescents are more sensitive to the effects of nicotine.
That is why the Government is right to launch a new crackdown on the marketing of vapes to children, with ministers pledging to close a loophole that lets companies offer free samples to under-18s. It is a gap in the law that ought never have been exploited, and closing it is the next step in the protection of young people.
Goodbye, Succession
With the decline of linear TV and the explosion in streaming, the chances of any two people watching the same show at the same time has fallen dramatically. So the finale of HBO’s Succession was somewhat of a throwback.
And while the viewing figures won’t threaten the late Queen’s funeral or a World Cup final, if you watched the show, and your friends watched, or you simply wanted to read the papers in peace, you had to see it last night.
The ending — we won’t give it away — was as nail-biting as any corporate shill could have hoped for.
