Winners and losers What interest rate cut means for borrowers and savers

For the vast majority of borrowers the answer is no: more than 7.1m (85%) of Britain's 8.4m existing residential mortgages are on a fixed rate, which means monthly repayments will stay the same.

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However, the reduction will translate into lower borrowing costs for the 590,000 homeowners with a base-rate tracker mortgage. The rate they pay will fall, in line with the Bank's cut. The banking body UK Finance reckons a typical tracker mortgage customer (with an outstanding balance of just under £140,000) will see monthly payments fall by £28.97 as a result of yesterday's decision.

The 540,000 borrowers on their lender's standard variable rate (SVR) will have to wait and see. Although it is likely that lenders will reduce their SVRs, they are not obliged to do so.

The returns on savings are generally not explicitly tied to the base rate, but yesterday's reduction is likely to be passed on to many savers who have easy access accounts and or other accounts without fixed interest rates.