More lenders raise mortgage rates

Homebuyers were dealt a fresh blow when two more leading mortgage lenders raised the cost of their most popular fixed-rate home loan deals. They were the latest in a string of increases over the past few days, and tonight there were predictions of more to come. Nationwide said it was increasing the cost of some of its fixed-rate deals by up to 0.5 percentage points - 11 days after it last raised its fixed rates. And Woolwich, the mortgage arm of Barclays, is raising the cost of its five-year fixed-rate deals by a similar amount. Last week Britannia Building Society and state-owned Northern Rock increased their fixed-rates by up to 0.9 and 0.7 points respectively, despite the Bank of England leaving base rates unchanged at a record low of 0.5 per cent.