‘There’s a lot of anger’: the mortgage trap ensnaring the Tories in their heartlands

theguardian.com:

S tevie Jackson was striding purposefully across Selby’s pretty marketplace on a warm Thursday lunchtime when she heard the news. As she stared down at her phone, her sunny disposition gave way to a look of anxiety. The Bank of England had just increased interest rates by another 0.5 percentage points, a record 13th consecutive rise and probably not the last.

Jackson has two young children and works as a cleaner at a local flour mill. She and her partner, who also has children, recently extended their mortgage by another 25 years to a total of 45. That way they hoped they could spread the payments and afford the other rising costs of family life, such as food and energy. “I have to feed the kids,” she says.

The very mention of the word “mortgage” makes her nervous. “It was £800 a month. By extending and paying over extra years, it means we pay less each month. But now they will be going up again. We both have jobs. I don’t know what we do next.”

Close by, Lauren Maher, who runs a clothes shop in the North Yorkshire town, and Alan Hughes, a lorry driver, were on their lunch break at Violet’s Cafe in the town centre. They would also love to own their own home one day but despite being in good jobs feel they are going backwards on that ambition.

They used to rent, but various pressures – including the soaring cost of doing so – mean they are now both living with Lauren’s parents. “Slimmer and slimmer,” said Alan when asked how he rates their chances of one day getting on the property ladder. The story is the same with many young people in Selby: relying on their parents for somewhere to live because rents are so high, never mind being able to afford to buy.

Successive Tory governments since the late 1970s have promoted the idea