Hull in interest rate firing line

Many places in the UK, including flood-ravaged Hull, are beginning to feel the effects of recent UK interest rate rises, a credit agency has said.Experian looked at UK towns and cities to see which would be hardest hit by five rate rises since last August.It analysed income, borrowing and spending patterns of residents to see which places lose from rate rises.Slough, Corby and Stevenage were also cited as places where consumers may be struggling from higher borrowing costs.The places where a major proportion of the population are in debt are particularly vulnerable to higher rates, the study said."Hull is joined by a number of areas of the UK that contain higher proportions of people with large mortgages, lower gross incomes, significant levels of unsecured borrowing and fewer savings," said Neil Blake, chief economist at Experian.On the flip side, locations where residents had few debts but high levels of savings were winners.Experian named East Dorset, North Norfolk and East Sussex as areas with large number of savers who could benefit from rate increases.