Halifax has issued a new set of mortgage tracker options to the market but the increased margins on this product have attracted great concern from government and consumer groups. Halifax, owned by HBOS, was one of the mortgage lenders who withdrew their mortgage trackers from the market ahead of the last interest-rate reduction, another move which also attracted much disdain.

The new mortgage tracker released by Halifax has been pegged at 2.14 percentage points above the Bank of England's base rate against just 1.04% prior to the last interest-rate reduction. This means that margins have doubled, which is yet again in direct confrontation with the strategy agreed between the government and the various UK banks.

The group has also increased the deposit required to obtain a mortgage tracker with the rate now at 25%. As Halifax is the largest mortgage provider in the market this will to act as a benchmark for other providers in the sector who will no doubt be issuing their own mortgage tracker proposals in due course. Yet again, we see the banking sector attempting to take on the government and the taxpayer left to fund the massive bailout with very little to show for it.

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