Mehrdad Yousefi, head of intermediary mortgages at A&L, said:
"Today's announcement is in the light of a number of official statistics and business surveys which have pointed to an improving economic environment in the past few weeks. 2006 is now likely to be a better year for the economy than last year. This is partly due to stronger domestic and economic demand as well as continuing growth in the US economy.
"Money market rates are now factoring in no movement in interest rates by the Bank of England for a few months, although there are still some risks to the economy on the downside.
"In the meantime, consumers can benefit from highly attractive two-year fixed rate and discount rate mortgages from most major mortgage lenders to either consolidate their borrowing costs or enter into the housing market for the first time."
