The financial press reports that over one million people with mortgages could be faced with their payments soaring by almost a third over the next 12 months. In other words, increases of several hundred pounds a month in repayments, depending on the size and type of mortgage.

This is because these people took out fixed rate deals in 2005, which are now due to come to an end. At the time, as much as 20% of the UK mortgage market moved onto fixed rate deals, in fact. But today, when interest rates are going up, unlike in 2005, when they were going down, the banks and building societies offer no such deals.

In fact what they do sell, are mortgages lent over periods as long as 30 or 40 years, supposedly to "help" workers get a foot on the property ladder. Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that in April 2005, 7.5% of first-time buyers took on a mortgage for 30-plus years. By March this year, that figure had grown to 17.2%.

Of course, for the rich establishment, home ownership is promoted as a necessity, whether affordable or not, rather than a necessary evil. The supply of council homes for rent dried up completely by the late 1980s, thanks to Thatcher's "right to buy". Today more than double the number of households live in their own homes as did 50 years ago. But now, if a young couple wants to find a home, they face house prices of more than 8 times the average annual salary!!

So they wait longer before taking out a mortgage, and as the Financial Times explains, as a result, "millions could be paying off mortgages in old age"! The FT omits to say where the "elderly" are going to find the money to pay off their mortgages, given the current attack on pensions! But then of course, retirement age is also due to be delayed...all the way up to 70 years or more!

In fact peddling home ownership it is just another - very lucrative - mechanism to transfer wealth from the poor to the rich. As long as workers are in hock, the bosses hope we will keep our heads down. But they shouldn't bank on it!