Interest rate hike will hit Britons with big mortgages

London

BRITONS who have relied on years of record-low interest rates to manage hefty mortgages are looking nervously ahead to 2015, when the Bank of England (BOE) finally looks set to start raising rates.

British people have more debt per head than in any other big rich economy, at around 140 per cent of income, barely down from its peak as the financial crisis broke and equivalent to £1.5 trillion (S$3.1 trillion) in total.