Hi, just a quick question here to see what other people think about this. But should the bank of England start giving mortgages at the new base rates that they have implemented 1.5%

It seems the government are asking the banks to pass on the base cut but they are not obliged too. So they are in effect just ignoring the BoE. When the rates went up they passed on the rise every time.

Now that we have bailed the banks out, and they are not helping us. (Reposessions at record levels too) Should the bank of England step in and help its people instead?

Sorry to rain on your parade mate, but I work for the Bank of England , There's absolutely no way we as an organisation can cope with setting up mortgages for the public.
We don't even have the facilties for online banking , we have a few personal accounts for staff and ex-employees , but the company doesn't want to invest in the 'link' system for our customers to have access to their own accounts, too much money, and even then I think the bosses want to get rid of the personal account anyway( its been in the pipeline for a while now but no clear decision one way or the other).
To set up mortgages for the public would take a huge undertaking in staff and expenses, and then we'd have to deal with all the paperwork on an ongoing process.
We used to subsidise mortgages for staff , many years ago and even then it was with another bank, ( you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours sort of thing).
So unfortunately , a good idea as we have the lowest rates but the greedy high street banks would kick up a stink anyway because they'd lose out in money made from the inflated prices they charge..

Maybe if they actually did manage to set something like this up when the greedy banks went bust the BoE would have plenty of jobs lined up for the employees.



It just seems like the BoE is pretty powerless against the banks at the minute, they set the interest rates but the banks are mainly borrowing from others. Or not passing the rate on to there customers.

Also DataWraith, is the interest on the current accounts available to staff at the BoE set at 1.5%.

Heh , it is now.. it used to be 4% on the accounts with over £14000 in them, and as I deal with statements I see a lot of balances that are only getting 1.5% now. How it tickles me.....
I don't think that the B.o.E would want the hassle, they have enough problems dealing with other central banks from other countries and other financial 'obligations'.

All banks should sell mortgages... To people who can pay for them.

Even if the B.o.E were to drop to to 0.5 % the high street banks wouldn't match it on loans or mortgages because all they want is your money to pay the shareholders and let the bosses go on holidays. They are greedy self serving entities with no heart for the people, just what they can get from them.
The way it will work is they will sort out the wheat from the chafe when it comes to mortgages is charge way over the top as a deposit as damien stated above, that way they still get a huge lump sum and if the person taking the mortgage out cant afford to make the payments and therefore loses the house the banks still get a shedload of cash.
Besides look at the credit cards and Hire purchase loans you can take out , their still at anything from 14% APR to 29.9 %APR. so those haven't been past to the public.
Banks make me sick- apart from my one because we are actually trying to help the public and the economy, but mortgage lenders and other money grabbers just want as much as they can get, My advice to you all is spend as little as you can, save up as much as you can, and wait for the storm to pass, ( about a year or so) before trying to buy a house.
Argue and barter with shops when buying electricals as more are likely to barter these days just to get your business, and buying food in bulk will help in the long run, look at the supermarkets for any specials ( buy one get one free and such).
Plus looka round for the best bargains, don't ever go on face value either

[edit on 9/1/09 by DataWraith]