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More than half of Britons ‘trust’ Bank of England: YouGov

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More than half the country say they “trust” the Bank of England following its £65bn bond-buying programme to stem the crisis in government debt markets, according to YouGov.

The poll found that 55% of adults trusted the central bank either “a great deal” (12%) or “a fair amount” (43%).

It comes after the Bank said on Thursday it was suspending a programme to sell gilts and would instead buy long-dated bonds at a rate of up to £5bn a day for the next 13 weekdays after warning of “a material risk to UK financial stability”.

The move is intended to avoid a meltdown in the UK pensions sector and bring a measure of stability to the mortgage market, following volatility in the sterling market in the wake of Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax-cutting mini-Budget last Friday.

Since the Chancellor’s intervention, the amount of mortgage products on the market has fallen by 41% to 2,273, as firms pull products and work out how to reprice them with the cost of debt for the government and companies rising on international money markets, according to Moneyfacts.

The move by the Bank, led by governor Andrew Bailey, has stabilised the pound, which stands at $1.11 against the dollar, but many economists warn the rush of such a large amount of money into the economy will prove inflationary.

UK inflation currently stands at 9.9%, which the central bank had forecast will peak at just under 11% in October, down from a previous prediction of 13%.

Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney told BBC’s Today programme on Thursday that the government’s tax-cutting measures were “working at some cross-purposes” with the central bank.

He added: “Unfortunately having a partial budget, in these circumstances – tough global economy, tough financial market position, working at cross-purposes with the Bank – has led to quite dramatic moves in financial markets.”

YouGov’s poll found that 21% of people did not trust the Bank “very much”, while 8% said, “not at all”. The rest said they did not know. The survey was conducted among 3,736 adults on September 29.

Another YouGov poll on Thursday found that Labour has surged to a 33-point lead over the Conservatives after days of chaos in financial markets. The survey of more than 1,700 adults showed 54% support for Labour and 21% for the Conservatives.

A third YouGov poll a week earlier showed 45% of voters backing Labour compared to 28% support for the Conservatives.

Finopulse

Disclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Finopulse.
Publisher: Roger Baird

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