The Bank of England Held Bank Rate at 3.75% as Three Members Voted to Raise It

The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75% on 17 September in a 6-3 vote. All three dissenters wanted a rise to 4.0%, and the gilt decision was unanimous.

The Bank of England left Bank Rate at 3.75% on 17 September 2026, and the shape of the vote matters more than the level. The Monetary Policy Committee split six to three, and every one of the three dissenters preferred an increase to 4.0%. Consumer price inflation stood at 3.1% in August, while GDP grew 0.4% in the second quarter with the same rate projected for the third.

A split that points upwards

Andrew Bailey, Sarah Breeden, Swati Dhingra, Clare Lombardelli, Dave Ramsden and Alan Taylor voted to hold. Megan Greene, Catherine L Mann and Huw Pill voted to raise the rate to 4.0%. That is an unusual configuration for a market that has spent most of 2026 asking when the next cut arrives: the only disagreement inside the committee runs in the opposite direction. The next decision is due on 5 November 2026.

The gilt vote is the one that reaches mortgage pricing

Separately, and unanimously, the committee approved a multi-year plan to reduce its stock of gilts to zero. The remaining stock is 368 billion pounds. It will fall by an average of 46 billion pounds a year, of which 20 billion is active sales and 26 billion is gilts simply maturing, with completion set for the end of 2034. Long-dated gilt yields anchor fixed-rate mortgage pricing in Britain, so a committed eight-year supply schedule is a slower but more durable influence on borrowing costs than the policy rate itself.

One sentence on mortgages, and nothing else

The minutes contain exactly one reference to housing finance: the quoted rate on two-year fixed-rate mortgages was "around 95 basis points higher than prior to the conflict". Beyond that line there is no discussion of house prices, transaction volumes, mortgage approvals or rents anywhere in the document. That absence is worth stating plainly, because a September rate round is often reported as though it had delivered a verdict on housing.

What a 3.75% policy rate leaves a landlord

Glopra's United Kingdom row values the average dwelling at 367,751 dollars and the average private rent at 1,883 dollars a month, both converted to dollars from Office for National Statistics data: the UK House Price Index for June 2026 and the Price Index of Private Rents for July 2026. Divided by the same 96 square metre average floor area, that is 3,831 dollars per square metre against 19.61 dollars per square metre a month, a gross yield of 6.1%, or 5.0% once the 18.51% effective tax on a non-resident's rental income is deducted. Round-trip transaction costs come to 9.8%.

Over twelve months UK prices rose 2.0% in sterling and 2.6% in dollars; over ten years, 37.9% and 37.2%. Our bubble score of 41 places the market in the moderate band. Against that, a hold at 3.75% is neutral rather than helpful, and if the three dissenters were to gather a majority on 5 November, a two-year fixed rate already 95 basis points above its pre-conflict level would face renewed upward pressure.

Sources: Bank of England, Monetary Policy Summary and minutes of the MPC meeting, September 2026, published 17 September 2026 https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy-summary-and-minutes/2026/september-2026; Bank of England, Monetary Policy Summary and minutes, September 2026, full PDF https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/monetary-policy-summary-and-minutes/2026/monetary-policy-summary-and-minutes-september-2026.pdf

Market data: United Kingdom