He additionally mentioned the lenders agreed to permit struggling debtors to increase the time period of their mortgages or transfer to an interest-only plan briefly “no questions asked”.
Mr Hunt met with the bosses of HSBC, Santander and Barclays amongst others after a shock rate of interest hike threatened additional ache for struggling households.
Speaking to broadcasters, Mr Hunt mentioned that they’re most involved about households who may lose their houses and people whose funds may soar as their fixed-term charges come to an finish.
He mentioned they agreed to offer extra flexibility to these “anxious” about their funds by letting them change to interest-only funds or prolong the size of their mortgages earlier than reverting to the unique phrases inside six months “no questions asked, no impact on your credit score”.
“That, I think, is going to give people a lot of comfort and stop people worrying about having conversations with their banks when they are worried about their financial situation,” he mentioned.
There may even be extra leeway for these dealing with dropping their houses.
“The last thing that they want to do is to repossess a home, but in that extreme situation they have agreed there will be a minimum 12-month period before there’s a repossession without consent,” Mr Hunt mentioned.
The Chancellor harassed that tackling stubbornly excessive inflation, which measures the speed of rising costs and is behind the Bank of England’s repeated mountain climbing of rates of interest, is the “number one priority”.
But he was resisting giving into calls from some Tory backbenchers to supply a serious help bundle to mortgage holders, fearing it may additional gas inflation.
He mentioned ministers should as an alternative be “totally resolved and unflinching” in cooling costs.
NatWest chief government Alison Rose mentioned it had been a “very productive meeting” as she left Downing Street.
“We’re doing everything we can to help customers and help with the anxieties,” she mentioned.
Chief government of Lloyds Banking Group Charlie Nunn mentioned that bosses had held a “good working discussion with the Chancellor”.
With bosses arriving from round 7.30am, attendees additionally included Barclays chief government Matt Hammerstein, Virgin Money boss David Duffy, and Nationwide chief government Debbie Crosbie.
The assembly got here a day after the Bank of England issued its thirteenth rate of interest hike in a row, this time by half a proportion level from 4.5% to five% within the sharpest enhance since February.
Surprising economists who had been anticipating a smaller hike of 0.25 proportion factors, the transfer introduced charges to the very best stage in almost 15 years.
The transfer was an try to scale back inflation, which measures the speed of rising costs, which remained at 8.7% in May regardless of efforts to convey it down.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Mr Hunt have dominated out a monetary intervention as charges had been hiked because the Bank of England tries to convey down stubbornly excessive inflation.
Labour has known as for banks to be compelled to assist struggling mortgage holders in a harder response, whereas some backbench Tories have demanded help for under-pressure debtors.
Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves are urging ministers to order banks to supply additional help, similar to briefly permitting struggling debtors to change to interest-only funds or lengthen their mortgage interval.
Financial markets are predicting that rates of interest will strike a excessive of 6% by the tip of the 12 months.
There have been warnings that 1.4 million mortgage holders will lose no less than a fifth of their disposable earnings in further repayments.
They are set to rise by £2,900 for the typical family remortgaging subsequent 12 months, in keeping with economists on the Resolution Foundation.
More than 80% of householders with a mortgage are on fixed-rate offers, in keeping with commerce affiliation UK Finance.
However, round 2.4 million fixed-rate mortgage offers are on account of finish earlier than the tip of 2024, with some doubtlessly heading for a invoice shock.
