At the beginning of August the Bank of England increased the base rate for interest rates in the UK by 0.25% to 4.75%. The move was the first change in the rate for 12 months.

Following such a change it is customary for financial institutions to adjust the interest rates on their products and mortgage providers traditionally are efficient in adjusting their rates.

However, according to The Scotsman newspaper, more than two weeks after the rate rise surprisingly only around half of UK home loan lenders have adjusted their rates. In fact some of the biggest players in the market: Woolwich, HSBC and NatWest, have yet to make any changes.

In contrast to this however, eight lenders have increased their interest rates by more than the base rate adjustment. Britannia and Nationwide are among this group, The Scotsman said.