Monetary policy committee (MPC) member Martin Weale said leaving rates on hold for too long would mean the committee might have to tighten more aggressively, something the Bank – and MPs – want to avoid.

“If you want to have baby steps you do have to start sooner,” he told the Financial Times. “The question is: how close are we getting to ‘soon’? Of course we can never be sure, but the economy … has sustained fairly rapid growth in demand.

“So I’m having to ask the question – and the answer is less definite than it was six months ago – ‘where do I think the interest rate should be at the moment?'”

A significant and sudden rise in rates would likely tip many borrowers into the red, especially those with tracker mortgages, but Weale’s comments will nonetheless heighten expectations that the MPC will opt for a small rise at the end of this year.

Markets are currently pricing in a rise in the first half of next year, with any move in 2014 seen as an outside possibility, but Weale’s comments could cause that situation to change.

While he has only one vote on the MPC, his comments reveal the growing pressure within the committee to take action, despite a recent move by governor Mark Carney to play down expectations of imminent action after he noted the economy is only now just starting to normalise.

Weale added he saw no immediate need for a rate rise but said the Bank should not wait too long if it wanted to avoid a sudden lurch upwards.

“We can wait a bit longer. How long that ‘bit longer’ will be I’m not sure, but the best judgment I can have is that it’s not so urgent it needs doing now.”