A prominent letting agent says he wants an immediate interest rate rise – and has even made his case to a deputy governor of the Bank of England.

Ajay Jagota of north east lettings and sales agency KIS has told Sir Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability of the Bank of England, that there is a case for gradual as part of a panel of key housing figures.

The Bank has held base rate for 67 consecutive months, having lowered it to 0.5 per cent in March 2009.

“We need to wean ourselves off the idea that near-to-zero interest rates are normal. They aren’t. They are a short-term response to the financial crisis which have somehow become a permanent part of our economy for the best part of ten years.
 
“Holding interest rates unnaturally low indefinitely is the economic equivalent of sustaining wartime rationing into the 1960s. With the economy growing, employment high and inflation non-existent, if we don’t grasp the nettle now, when do we?” he asks.