Have households accelerated their mortgage repayments?

Claims that households have begun to step up the rate at which they are paying back their mortgages do not look well founded. Rather, over the past year or so, repayments of mortgage principal have been far lower than we would have expected given the cuts in interest rates. One implication is that the recent improvement in mortgage arrears may mask a highly fragile underlying picture, in which many households remain very vulnerable to any further shocks.