CML responds to decision to reduce rates to 5.5%

Responding to today's MPC decision to reduce rates to 5.5%, the Council of Mortgage Lenders welcomes the reduction which will ease pressures on lenders and borrowers.

Michael Coogan, CML Director General, commented: "A reduction in interest rates is exactly what the market needs and will benefit consumers. This will reduce the risk of payment shock for the 1.4 million borrowers coming off fixed rates in the next year.

"However, we still need the authorities to intervene more aggressively to open wholesale funding markets. There is a real need to minimise the shortfall between the demand for mortgages and lenders' capacity to supply them."