London, April 22, 2026, 21:10 BST
- Starting Wednesday, Barclays reduced rates on over 20 mortgage products. Skipton responded too, trimming certain residential rates and rolling out fresh fixed-rate options.
- Santander, HSBC, and Virgin Money are lining up more cuts this week, broadening the repricing wave sweeping through the UK mortgage sector.
- These reductions arrive ahead of the Bank of England’s April 30 meeting, with the Bank Rate holding at 3.75% and inflation running above target at 3.3%.
Barclays and Skipton Building Society slashed mortgage rates on Wednesday, jumping into the latest wave of price cuts as lenders sought to claw back business following several weeks of turbulence in funding markets.
That shift is grabbing attention, with borrowers hoping for some breathing room ahead of the Bank of England’s April 30 rate call. The Bank Rate—the core policy rate shaping broader lending—sits at 3.75%. Inflation? It’s jumped to 3.3%, topping the 2% goal.
Mortgage rates have been caught in a tug-of-war. On one side, swap rates have slipped in recent days—usually a tailwind for fixed-rate mortgages. On the other, higher energy prices have delivered a new inflation jolt, threatening to prop up borrowing costs. Lenders rely on swap rates to set fixed mortgage prices.
Barclays has trimmed rates on over 20 residential mortgage offerings, chopping as much as 0.36 percentage points. The lender’s two-year fixed deal for buyers, set at 60% LTV, now kicks off at 4.60% and comes with an £899 fee. LTV refers to the loan as a percentage of the property’s value.
Skipton has trimmed rates on selected two-year fixed residential mortgages by up to 0.27 percentage points and unveiled fresh two- and five-year fixed options aimed at existing homeowners. The building society’s head of mortgage products and propositions, Jen Lloyd, pointed to a recent pullback in swap rates as the reason for the reductions, saying the lender was able to hand over some of those savings. But she cautioned it’s “too early to say” if this signals a sustained drop. Intermediary Mortgage News
Santander plans to trim certain fixed rates for first-time buyers, home movers, and remortgage customers by as much as 0.25 percentage points starting Friday. The lender’s 98% LTV My First Mortgage rate moves to 5.60%. Also rolling out: a 95% LTV three-year fix at 5.55%, with zero fee and £250 cashback.
Starting Thursday, HSBC UK is set to adjust a range of its residential and buy-to-let mortgage rates. Virgin Money is also trimming selected fixed rates for purchases, remortgages, and buy-to-let loans on the same day. The lender’s changes feature reductions of up to 0.45 percentage points for five-year fixed purchase and shared ownership deals, but some two-year tracker rates will move higher.
The Independent, referencing Moneyfacts data, reported the average rate for a two-year fixed homeowner mortgage slipped to 5.83% Wednesday morning, edging down from Tuesday’s 5.87%. Five-year fixes also ticked lower—now at 5.73%, compared with 5.76% a day earlier. Both averages, however, still sit well above where they were at the start of March.
Barclays, Skipton, and Santander are once again jostling with HSBC, Virgin Money and the rest of the big names after the latest rate cuts, which come as lenders juggle choppy wholesale funding costs and uncertain borrower appetite. Barclays, previously on the pricier side, now finds itself returning to the top of the best-buy charts, according to Aaron Strutt, product director at Trinity Financial, who spoke with Mortgage Introducer.
Katy Eatenton, a mortgage specialist with Lifetime Wealth Management, described lenders to City A.M. as “reducing rates as aggressively as they increased them.” David Hollingworth, associate director at L&C Mortgages, noted borrowers are keeping a close eye on the Bank of England for any hints about where base rates might head next. City AM
The macro picture? Still tricky. UK inflation ticked up to 3.3% in March after sitting at 3.0% in February, data from the Office for National Statistics shows, with motor fuel prices registering their sharpest monthly jump since June 2022, Reuters reported. Every one of the 62 economists polled by Reuters predicted the Bank of England would keep the Bank Rate at 3.75% on April 30.
There’s a chance this wave of mortgage reductions doesn’t stretch far. Should energy prices start driving up wages and prices across the board, the Bank of England might stick with tighter policy—or markets could send swap rates higher once more. The Bank has flagged the risk of follow-through inflation if energy costs stay elevated, and that scenario could squeeze lenders’ ability to cut further.
