Darlington Building Society urges struggling homeowners to seek help

Rising rates mean some homeowners are facing big increases in mortgage payments

A building society boss has urged those struggling with their mortgages to talk to their lender "as soon they can" amid a predicted rise in interest rates.

The Bank of England is expected to announce an increase on Thursday in its attempt to tackle inflation.

Darlington Building Society has 10,000 customers, with around 60% of them on fixed rate mortgages.

Its chief executive said that while the level of arrears across the industry was "very low" people could get help.

"We are not seeing any signs of stress in our books right now but obviously we are aware it's a very challenging time for everybody with the cost of living and interest rates going up," said Andrew Craddock.

"Any increase in interest rates will feed directly through to those on variable rates, for those on fixed rates it depends on how long their fixed rate goes on for.

"I think that's part of the problem - the Bank of England has been raising interest rates for the last 18 months, and according to Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, two thirds of that hasn't actually fed through yet into the real economy, so there are lots of borrowers who haven't seen an increase in their repayments as of yet."

Andrew Craddock said it was almost "inevitable" the Bank of England would increase interest rates

Interest rates are widely expected to rise by 0.25% to 4.75% on Thursday but some suggest they could now go up to 5%. Rising rates mean homeowners are facing big increases in mortgage payments.

Mr Craddock said it was "almost inevitable" the Bank of England would increase rates because it needs to "do something to control inflation".

He said his building society was "regularly reviewing" its mortgage products and some fixed-rate deals had been withdrawn and repriced so it could stay in a "reasonable position" in the market.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has ruled out introducing major financial support to mortgage holders over fears it would "make inflation worse, not better".

But he said he would meet lenders to ask what help they could give to households in need.

Mr Craddock said he would be "very concerned" if the government asked lenders to put in place, for example, "any sort of blanket payment holidays", because each borrower had their own individual circumstances.

"Once people contact us we can discuss what their needs are and come up with a solution that meets them," he added.