Blue Wall set to be hardest hit by mortgage rate rise

Commuter belt areas in the ‘Blue Wall’ are set to be hardest hit by the Conservative mortgage premium, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

Figures published in the Census last week have revealed the areas with the largest proportion of households that have a mortgage.

The area with the highest proportion of mortgage borrowers is Andrea Leadsom’s seat of South Northamptonshire, with 20,420 or almost 40% of households owning their home with a mortgage or loan.

Second is John Redwood’s seat of Wokingham, where 40% or 18,695 households have a mortgage. The Conservative MP is defending a majority of just 7,383 against the Liberal Democrats.

Cabinet Minister Dominic Raab’s constituency of Esher and Walton comes tenth, with 38% of 17,438 households having a mortgage. He is defending a wafer-thin majority of 2,743 against Liberal Democrat candidate Monica Harding.

Also in the top ten is the ultra marginal seat of Cheadle in the Manchester commuter belt, where Conservative MP Mary Robinson is defending a majority of just 2,336 against the Liberal Democrats. The constituency has 14,866 households with a mortgage making up 38% of the total.

Michael Gove’s seat of Surrey Heath is 15th in the list with 38% of people there owning their home with a mortgage or loan.

48 of the top 50 seats with most mortgage borrowers are Conservative-held, one is Lib Dem and one Labour seat.

A staggering 1.4 million households are set to see their mortgages rise this year alone, ONS figures published this week have revealed. The Bank of England has suggested a typical household exiting a fixed-rate deal will face a hit of around £3,000 in additional interest payments this year. Previous polling has found two thirds (68%) of 2019 Conservative voters blame the government for their mortgages going up.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a mortgage rescue fund to support homeowners hardest hit by soaring mortgage prices.

Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

“This Conservative government has betrayed homeowners by adding thousands of pounds to people’s mortgages. 

“Millions of people now face having to cut back or even sell their home, with commuter belt areas set to be hardest hit.

“Conservative MPs across the Blue Wall face a reckoning at the next election unless they fix this mortgage nightmare.

“People will never forgive the Conservative Party for crashing the economy, sending mortgages spiralling and making the public pay to clean up their mess.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

Full data is available here.

The Liberal Democrats are proposing a new Mortgage Protection Fund, which would provide temporary grants to those most at risk of repossession – homeowners on the lowest incomes and those seeing the sharpest rises in mortgage rates. Anyone who sees their mortgage payments rise by more than 10% of their household income would get a grant to cover the cost of that rise for the next year, up to a maximum of £300 a month. 

Savanta ComRes interviewed 2,240 UK adults aged 18+ online between 30th September and 2nd October 2022. Data were weighted to be representative of the UK by age, sex, region and social grade.