Trapped by my mortgage (BBC One, 27 October 2018)

• Trapped by my mortgage

• By Cat McShane. Published by the BBC One Panorama on 27 October 2018

• Video available: https://vimeo.com/298729644

• Summary:

  • More than 100,000 people in Britain are "mortgage prisoners" trapped on high-interest rates. They are forced to pay double the interest they would on a competitive mortgage.

  • These "mortgage prisoners" could not re-mortgage to a cheaper deal with their existing lender, when initial fixed-rate interest rate deals expired, but they had to move on to the high standard variable rate where they paid interest rates of between 6% and 9% (compared to loans of less than 3% had they been able to re-mortgage."

  • Since 2018, Rachel Neale, one of the people with whom Cat McShane filmed, has gone on to be the figurehead of the Mortgage Prisoners UK campaign group, which lobbies relentlessly and creates really engaging campaigns that get picked-up.

  • As of 2019 and 2020, the group has got pretty strong cross-party support in Parliament and a group legal action is underway.

• Keywords: UK, mortgage, rent, debt, financialisation, financialization, lobby, high rates, remortgage