£9bn mortgage bombshell this year with commuter belt areas hardest hit

Families who remortgaged in 2023 are facing a mortgage bombshell of almost £9bn this year. Commuter belt areas in the Blue Wall are the hardest hit, new analysis commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The research was produced by the House of Commons Library, using figures from the Office of National Statistics to work out total mortgage costs by local authority. The figures include households on variable rates, not just those on fixed rates that expired.

It shows over 3.5 million households in England and Wales remortgaged their homes last year, causing a combined £8.8 billion in additional mortgage payments a year as a result.

The Liberal Democrats said it shows Rishi Sunak’s boasts on inflation would “ring hollow” for families facing eye-watering increases in their monthly mortgage payments. 

Commuter areas in the Blue Wall, in London and the South East are among the worst affected by soaring mortgage costs. Buckinghamshire faces the largest total hit with a staggering £146 million in extra mortgage payments spread across 38,117 households. This was followed by the London boroughs of Wandsworth (£132m), Barnet (£115m) and Bromley (£102m). 

Wokingham had the highest proportion of households who remortgaged last year, with one in five (19.7%) impacted. This will lead to a combined mortgage hit of £38 million for 13,626 households in the area. Dominic Raab’s backyard of Elmbridge was also among the worst hit proportionally, with 18.5% of households impacted leading to £56 million in additional mortgage costs.

Households in Jeremy Hunt’s Surrey Local Authority area of Waverley are facing £34 million in extra mortgage costs after 8,706 remortgaged last year.

Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

“Rishi Sunak’s boasts will ring hollow for the thousands of families seeing their mortgage go up by eye-watering amounts.

“This Conservative government crashed the economy and now they are condemning families to a £9 billion mortgage bombshell.

“Across the Blue Wall, former Conservatives fed up with being taken for granted are switching to the Liberal Democrats."