Mortgage Firms' Snub for Darling; PRESSURE: Lee Tibbenham and Melissa Smith, with Son Joseph, Pay a 9.7 per Cent Mortgage Interest Rate

Beginning of article

Byline: RICHARD DYSON

NOT long ago banks offered reasonably priced mortgages to almost everyone, even those borrowers whose credit records were imperfect. Not any more. The stubborn refusal of lenders to turn on the mortgage tap means hundreds of thousands of borrowers are stuck on unaffordably high rates. And nothing Alistair Darling said last week will make any difference.

Until May, Lee Tibbenham and his partner Melissa Smith, who have a one-year-old son Joseph, were on a fixed- rate mortgage of 5.85 per a fixed-rate mortgage of 5.85 per cent and paying [pounds sterling]480 a month on their Norwich flat. Now they are paying a crippling 9.7 per cent standard …