Couple say they will consider selling up and renting as mortgage rises by £250 a month

A couple say they might be forced to consider selling up and renting over their soaring monthly mortgage repayments. Mark Pepperell said he was expecting to pay in the region of £150 a month extra as he searched around for a new deal.

But as interest rates climb towards six per cent, he's now been hit by a £250 per month increase. "It's a hard pill to swallow," he said. "We're comfortable, putting money back into restaurants or retail.

"But those things are going to have to stop. We will now have to take serious decisions on where our money goes." Mr Pepperell added that in two years, if rates stand at six or seven per cent, they may even have to consider selling up and renting instead.

He spoke out as a Tory former secretary to the Treasury said the Government has caused a 'crisis' - but 'the pain is still to come'. David Gauke told the BBC: "Now we have what can only be described as a crisis, and it is directly as a consequence of decisions made by the Conservative Government.

"The pain is still to come, in truth. The pain of higher interest rates, of tougher decisions on public spending is yet to be felt," added the 50-year-old, who was the MP for South West Hertfordshire from 2005 to 2019.

With some analysts predicting the Bank of England's base rate, currently standing at 2.25 per cent, will have to rise to as high as 6 per cent next year, some lenders began withdrawing mortgage products amid the uncertainty.

Major mortgage lenders Santander and HSBC, along with the Nationwide and Yorkshire building societies, joined a rush of lenders to pull home loans or up their rates, reports The Mirror.

The situation was triggered by Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, on Friday when he unveiled a massive £45 billion of tax cuts