High street banks have not been passing on base rate cuts in full to household borrowers, according to the Bank of England.

The Bank's quarterly bulletin found that the interest rate charged on some loans has actually risen.

This may be due to the borrowing cost of banks themselves - which has not fallen as steeply as base rates - and higher charges because of higher default risk as well as banks looking to boost their profits.

The Bank of England cut base rates to a historic low of 0.5% in response to the financial crisis and this rate has remained in place for 18 consecutive months.