The Bank of England holds the base rate for a consecutive month.

The Bank of England’s (BoE) monetary policy committee has made the decision to hold the UK base rate at 0.5% for a consecutive month.

The BoE reduced the base rate from 1% to 0.5% in March 2009, dropping it to a record low. However, recent manufacturing reports and the March house price indexes from both Nationwide and Halifax are showing no significant signs of a turnaround for the country.

Today’s announcement to maintain the rate was widely anticipated across the industry as the BoE continues to try and alleviate the burden of the recession on the UK economy.

The statement also confirmed the committee’s decision to continue with the programme of ‘quantitative easing’ to boost lending. So far a total of just over £26 billion has been put into the economy, but it will take another two months to complete the programme of asset purchases, providing a total of £75bn.

Commenting on the decision, David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said: "The financial markets have anticipated today’s MPC decision to keep the official interest rate unchanged at 0.50 per cent. With the rate now close to zero, further cuts are unlikely to produce benefits.”

In a further boost to homebuyers, HSBC has announced that from 14 April 2009, it will increase the maximum loan-to-value ratio to 90% following a £1bn boost to its lending portfolio. Previously the bank had been one of the main lenders that required a larger deposit.