Millions of struggling families will be hit by higher mortgage payments after banks raised their charges last night – despite the Bank of England’s quarter-point cut in the base rate to 5 per cent.

The rate cut would normally bring the cost of mortgages down. Instead, four of the biggest banks ignored it and increased charges on a range of loans, adding about £150 a month to a typical mortgage.

Nationwide, the second-biggest lender, increased the rates on its fixed-rate deals for the second time in a fortnight, while Royal Bank of Scotland, Alliance & Leicester and Britannia Building Society also raised rates.

Mortgage brokers said that other lenders would follow suit, a worry for the 1.4 million borrowers who will come to the end of fixed-rate mortgage deals this year.

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Melanie Bien, director of the independent mortgage broker Savills Private Finance, said that the connection between interest rates and mortgage rates had weakened significantly. “Even though the base rate is coming down, it does not follow that rates on mortgage deals will do the same. In fact, lenders are moving in the other direction, with several raising their fixed rates in the past couple of days. Unfortunately, we expect this to continue.”

Britain’s banks are struggling under the global credit crunch, which has dried up the commercial lending market that once funded all the cheap mortgage deals.

Experts gave warning that the credit crunch was turning into a consumer crunch as a range of economic pressures squeezed families.

Homeowners have already been forced to shoulder double-digit increases in their energy tariffs since the beginning of the year, and supermarket prices have increased dramatically since 2006.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) coupled the quarter-point cut with a warning about the growing risk of inflation. The committee conceded that it was caught in a difficult balancing act – a rate cut could help to stave off growing risks to the economy from the housing downturn but could fuel inflation further.

Figures show that more companies across the services and manufacturing sectors are raising prices than at any time in the past decade. Steep falls in the value of the pound mean that import prices are rising at their fastest for nearly 15 years.

Worryingly for the Bank, many businesses cited financing costs as a key pressure – a sign that the credit squeeze is fuelling inflation even as it saps economic activity.

Yesterday also brought the first serious indications that widespread price pressures and steeply rising living costs are starting to stoke pay pressures – a key fear of the MPC.

This will dent hopes of another rate cut next month, making it likely that the Bank’s efforts to control mortgage rates may wane further.

The burden on drivers’ wallets is unlikely to ease either. The average price of petrol in the year to May is on the brink of exceeding £1 a litre for the first time ever, the AA said. The average price in the year to May 2007 was 91.35p.

The pound slumped to a record low against the euro yesterday morning, piling pressure on families hoping to take a holiday in Europe.

Thomas Cook, the travel group, said that it was cutting back holidays to short-haul destinations in Europe as the strong euro would have an effect on holidaymakers’ choice of destination, given the rising cost of meals, car hire and other holiday essentials.

While the Bank rate is now only slightly higher than when many locked into their home loan deals several years ago, mortgage rates have soared as lenders strive to protect their margins.

Banks blamed recent increases in money market rates, which have risen sharply since the credit crunch started to take hold last year. Libor (the London InterBank Offered Rate), which usually mirrors the base rate, is now much higher at nearly 6 per cent. Andrew Montlake, director of Cobalt Capital, the mortgage broker, said: “More lenders will definitely increase rates over the coming weeks. The rate cut will not make any difference.”

There is some good news for the one in five borrowers locked into tracker deals, however, as they will see their payments fall. A borrower with a £150,000 tracker loan pegged at the base rate will pay £22 less a month.

Several lenders, including Halifax, the UK’s biggest, Lloyds TSB, Barclays and Nationwide, said that they would pass the quarter-point rate cut on to customers with a variable rate loan. But many lenders have yet to announce if they will follow suit.

RBS increased the rate on its fixed-rate deals available via mortgage brokers by up to 0.5 per cent, while Nationwide increased its rates by between 0.12 per cent and 0.32 per cent on most of its fixed-rate deals.

Two years ago a two-year fixed rate at Nationwide was pegged at 4.69 per cent. Yesterday it was 6.03 per cent. Borrowers who take out the deal today will find that it has been upped to 6.35 per cent - an increase of £150 a month for a £150,000 mortgage.

—Shariff Uddin, 27, a junior doctor in Oldham, Lancashire, took out a £125,000 mortgage to buy a four-bedroom house eight months ago. He has a variable tracker rate, and pays £780 a month, which will drop by about £15 after the base rate cut. However, he has debts of £18,000 after two medical degrees. He said: “My household bills are creeping up every day and it has really begun to hit me in the pocket.”

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