An ITV News poll revealed that one sixth of mortgage holders thought a rise in interest rates would negatively impact on their personal finances.

Nearly half of those interviewed said they had started to cut back their expenditure ahead of a hike.

Ben Chapman, a reporter for ITV News, chatted to homeowners about their fears of a rate hike. One interviewee said that her concerns had driven her to move onto a fixed rate deal which had cost her an extra £80.00 per month, that she would fund by cutting back elsewhere.

While the Bank of England has not given an actual date for when rates will rise, much speculation has arisen from mixed messages coming from governor Mark Carney and his team.

Carney has been labelled ‘an unreliable boyfriend’ for changing his mind on when a rise would happen while his newly appointed deputy, Minouche Shafik, hinted at the start of July that rates were about to rise.

Despite the hype, the Monetary Policy Committee voted to hold the base rate at 0.5% for the 65th consecutive month, in August.

Carney has voiced concerns previously that over-indebted homeowners would curb spending to maintain their mortgage payments, which would have an impact on the wider economy.

To limit the risk of homeowners taking on commitments which they cannot comfortably afford to maintain the FPC introduced a limit to the amount of mortgages which banks and building societies could lend on high loan-to-income ratios.

From October lenders, which lend more than £100m a year, will not be permitted to lend more than 15% of their new loan book to borrowers using 4.5 times or more of their income to support their mortgage applications.