Tory interest hikes will punish hundreds of thousands of Scottish households
With inflation stagnating at unaffordable levels and interest rates soaring to a 15 year high of 5%, it is clear that the Tories have no plan and do not care about the misery they are causing for millions of people’s lives, say the Scottish Greens.
There are an estimated 115,000 Scottish households who are on standard variable rates and 85,000 on tracker loans, which fluctuate with the base rate set by the Bank of England. On top of that, there are a further 120,000 households in Scotland with fixed rate mortgages that are set to expire this year. They will be particularly badly hit.
Scottish Greens economy spokesperson Maggie Chapman MSP said:
“All over the country there are households and families struggling to make ends meet, and today’s announcement will only make that struggle worse.
“These are real people who are suffering real consequences. Whether it is the families who are trapped in sky high debts they can no longer afford, or the hundreds of thousands of young people desperately trying to buy their first home.
“With soaring interest rates, flatlining inflation, rising food prices and a botched and disastrous Brexit, the Tories are offering a recipe of chaos. They are offering no end of pain, with absolutely no gain for anyone except their wealthy friends.
“How much worse will they let things get? How many more people will have to suffer before they are actually forced to do something about it?
“After 13 years of Tory misrule, we urgently need to change the economy and the assumptions that underpin it.
“With Scottish Greens in government we are taking vital steps, with the groundbreaking Scottish Child Payment, the expansion of the living wage to all Scottish Government contracts, free bus travel for everyone under 22 and the most progressive tax system anywhere in the UK.
“If we are to make the fundamental structural changes that are badly needed then we have to have the power to do so. Every day that we are run by a cruel and incompetent Tory government that we did not vote for is another day that we are being held back.”
