Where I can I find the Bank of England’s Average Mortgage Rate?

A client has been told that her IS housing costs have reduced due to a change in the mortgage interest figure used by the DWP.

Since October 2010 the DWP’s mortgage interest figure is based on the Bank of England’s Average Mortgage Rate.

Would anybody know how I can straightforwardly find out what the Bank of England’s Average Mortgage Rate currently is?

I’ve searched hi and lo on the Bank of England’s website and can’t find it listed at all.

I think you can find it here Ken.

Click to open “Wholesale interest and discount rates” drop-down menu.

Then under “Official Bank Rate   “, you can select your time period, “Month average - IUMABEDR - Monthly”

Then click orange button on the RHS that says “Show Data”

Then choose an output format from the buttons and you’ll get a long list of the relevant figures, right up to the current date.

Hi Paul,

You’ve made significantly more headway with the Bank of England website than I had but I’m not sure that you’re right.

I think that the drop down Official Bank rate - monthly average gives the lending rate on loans but not specifically average mortgage loans - as the current “answer” given is 0.5%.

However, I’ve now looked at another “drop down” further below on that same page and found this -

Quoted household interest rates, then
Secured lending (mortgage) rates, then
Standard variable (SVR), then
Combined bank and building society - IUMTLMV - Monthly.

This gives an answer of 3.98% - this seems more “correct” but I’m still don’t feel definite about it.

Surely the standard rate is still 3.63%?

Ah, you’re right Ken, I should have realised when I saw the 0.5%, doh!

Hi Ken

From 1 October 2010 the standard interest rate for payment of SMI is linked to the Bank of England published average interest rate for loans to households secured on dwellings. The rate will be adjusted whenever the published rate and the standard rate differ by 0.5 per cent or more. The initial standard rate was set at 3.63% and has not been changed since then. The easiest place to check is on direct.gov.uk.

Hope that helps

The Average Mortgage Rate figure can be found at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/bankstats/current/index.htm
It is the first tab of Table G1.4 under the heading ‘CFM’ column ‘HSDE.

See paragraph 7 of the Explanatory Memorandum to the Social Security (Housing Costs)(Standard Interest Rate) Amendment Regulations 2010 No 1811

The current rate is 3.48% and so has not changed by the 0.5% from the starting point of 3.63% to trigger a change in rates.

Many thanks Ali and Scott.

You’re both dead right about the SMI still being 3.63% and, as Ali says, this information is actually given on the directgov website -

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/On_a_low_income/DG_180321