Brian Murphy, Head of Lending at Mortgage Advice Bureau comments on the Bank of England's decision to decrease the base rate to 2%. "With today's interest rate decision pushing the base rate ever closer to the 0% mark, borrowers currently on tracker mortgages will receive an early Christmas present in the form of this month's 1% rate cut. However, unless lenders pass the cut on, few other borrowers will benefit from today's news.

"Interestingly, the minutes of last month's decision show us that a 2.5% cut was actually considered in November but refrained from in case it spooked the market. Instead of being heralded as another drastic move by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), today's cut simply takes us back to the levels that the MPC originally considered imposing four weeks ago.

"Many lenders did pass on last months full 1 ½% point cut but we will have to wait to see the stance individual lenders take this time around. The last few weeks has seen some fairly competitive pricing of fixed rate mortgage products, and we are starting to see small signs that confidence is returning to the mortgage market. We await developments to see if this trend continues following today's further reduction in the base rate."