New analysis from Labour reveals 73,000 homeowners in Somerset face paying an average £960 more a year on their mortgages thanks to the Conservatives’ mini budget. That’s a combined total of £70,080,000. The BBC have reported that the average mortgage payer faces a ‘Kwarteng Premium’ of £960 on their mortgage as a direct result of the shambolic mini budget, which has seen rates rise by 1% higher than expected as markets lost faith in the British economy. That means homeowners in Somerset will be forking out an extra £70,080,000 in mortgage payments to banks, which will be lost from our local economy.
Publishing the figures, Somerset Labour Leader Leigh Redman (Bridgwater North & Central) said, “This is a crisis made by the Conservatives in Downing Street – and it is costing families in Somerset a fortune. The Conservatives have utterly lost control of the economy. They have lost all credibility thanks to their irresponsible plans to fund tax cuts for the rich by borrowing billions of pounds. That lack of credibility is pushing up the cost of borrowing for homeowners in AREA, and that means mortgages are going up. This is incompetence on a colossal scale – and they have damaged our country. The Conservatives must reverse their whole economic, discredited trickle-down strategy. As the party of fiscal responsibility and social justice, it will come to the Labour Party to repair the damage this Tory government has done. A general election can’t come soon enough.”
Bridgwater Town Council Economy spokesman Cllr Mick Lerry (Bridgwater Victoria, Labour) says “The recent further increase in the cost of living and inflation has been caused by the Conservative government, when they revealed their mini budget. It was the Prime Minister and her Chancellor who forced the interest rates up, they are to blame, and the U turn on the public borrowing for tax cuts has only made matters worse. The new Tory Government is now seen as incompetent with the economy. The Government has talked about growth while creating financial confusion, for those working people trying to access or pay their mortgage, their aspirations have been dashed by the Government’s negligence.”
The Tories used to say that they were “the party of home ownership”. In fact, J home ownership has fallen by well over a million in the last ten years. A decade of Tory (and LD supported) governments has crushed too many people’s dreams.