Lloyds and Woolwich put up trackers

Some tracker mortgage deals designed to reflect the Bank of England''s base rate have increased, the Press Association reports.

The rate rises on some Lloyds TSB and Woolwich trackers come despite the Bank cutting interest rates last Wednesday.

Lloyds has put up some deals by 0.5 per cent, while the Woolwich has imposed 0.2 per cent increases on its offset and lifetime deals.

Moreover, Lloyds did not take 0.5 per cent off its trackers when the Bank cut the base rate – meaning that some mortgages are carrying rates one per cent higher than they would do otherwise.

Speaking to the news agency, head of mortgages at the Woolwich, Andy Gray, said: "We are seeing unsustainable flows of customers to the Woolwich since changes by other lenders left us with some of the only competitively priced mortgages in the market.

"Last week we immediately passed on the full Bank of England base rate cut of 0.5 per cent, but as a result of changes elsewhere in the market we now need to control the flow of business by making some slight increases to the rates on our tracker mortgages."