HOME BUYERS CHEATED ON RATE CUTS

However, more than 30 lenders have yet to announce any fall. They include Skipton Building Society, whose standard variable rate remains at 7.14 per cent, Cambridge Building Society at 6.95 per cent and Scarborough Building Society at 7.99 per cent.

Those lenders which have yet to announce a cut are mostly building societies.

Louise Cummings, of  Moneysupermarket.com, which carried out the research, said: “Lenders need to address their mandate of treating customers fairly.

“Four out of every five mortgage lenders have given themselves an early festive treat by not passing on the reduction.

“The majority are using this delay as an opportunity to make extra profit at the expense of borrowers. In the current economic climate, I would have liked to have seen providers showing a little more compassion towards borrowers who have spread themselves thin over Christmas.

“Time and time again we see this delay in passing on reductions. Perhaps providers’ New Year’s resolutions could be to pass on rate changes automatically or backdate them.

“If some lenders can reduce their rates by 0.25 per cent, and pass it on quite early in December, then why can’t others?”

Bernard Clarke, of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, said: “Lenders are always looking to attract customers at particular times with competitive products to draw customers in.

“Others who are less keen to build their mortgage book may be less likely to do the same.”

A numbers of lenders said their procedure was to change rates at the start of the month to give themselves time to update systems and inform customers.

Alliance and Leicester said it was due to announce changes to its mortgage products today. Cambridge Building Society said that, as a mutual organisation, its aim was “to act fairly to all members – both savers and borrowers.”

It went on: “As a smaller, local building society, we have traditionally not made immediate decisions to change rates as we prefer to wait to see what some of our major competitors are doing – this ensures that our rates remain competitive. Our standard mortgage rate is one of the lowest in the country.”

Lenders insisted the decision whether to cut the cost of home loans was down to a range of factors other than just the Bank of England base rate.

They include the wholesale rate at which banks are prepared to lend money to each other, which soared in the wake of the global credit crunch and only began to fall this week.

The failure to pass on the interest rate cut comes as figures provided further evidence of a slowdown in the housing market.

The value of mortgage loan completions last month was the lowest in more than two years.