Earlier this week, I wrote a piece detailing the worries some young people have about high mortgages rates – and why it was putting them off buying.
Mortgages got comfortably below 4 per cent at the start of 2026, but since the Iran war started back in February, they’ve been far higher, and it’s deterring some first-time buyers from dipping their toe into the market.
One woman I spoke to said she wouldn’t be buying until rates got below 4 per cent again.
Shorts
Despite the job market hiring fewer entry-level roles, employers are still looking for grads…
But you should be prepared to keep an open mind.
We’ve compiled the sectors hiring graduate roles, what degree is required, and what they pay.
(Photo: Abraham Gonzalez Fernandez/Getty Images/
Source: Moment RF)
The degrees to choose for a career
Hiring in the UK could
finally be on the up
47%
of employers offered entry-level
positions from July.
That is up nearly 15 per cent from the same period last year.
700,000
But graduate unemployment rose to six per cent in 2025 and 700,000 jobless graduates were claiming benefits.
Finance and insurance
- Around 42 per cent of UK finance and insurance employers say they will be open to graduate roles this summer.
- Business loan company Portman Finance Group has taken on 50 graduates over the past four years.
Portman graduates start on £36,000 for the two-year programme and the education you need to apply is a minimum “ABB” of A-levels, and a 2:1 or above university degree. But not in a specific subject.
Trade and logistics
What makes it particularly rewarding is that there’s always something to learn.
Nearly half (47 per cent) of trade and logistics companies will be giving graduates a go this year.
Salaries start at £30,000 with an uncapped bonus, rising to £50,000 plus a company car as a senior account partner.
Technology and IT
More than half (52 per cent) of UK tech and IT firms are actively looking for graduates.
Successful entry-level candidates can earn a basic salary of up to £35,000, with the opportunity to triple that within their first three years of working.
Photographer: Maria Korneeva
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
LIFESTYLE
4 min read
Public sector, health
and social services
46 per cent of public sector, health and social services organisations are also ready to take graduates, according to a survey by Manpower.
- For example, Police Now runs a graduate programme into policing. They recruit graduates from any degree field, as long as they achieve a 2:2 or above. Starting salaries range from £31,164 to £42,210 depending on location and rising each year.
Can we treat guests without blowing our budget?
According to Waitrose, a dinner party revival is underway led by younger people trying to reduce the cost of getting together.
The i Paper food writer Sophie Morris [below] asks chefs for their best ideas for hosting at home.
Always have bread
People will feast on the
bread, and then need less fish/steak/expensive whatever. All small plates restaurants know this: this is why the first thing on the menu is always artisan bread and butter.
ELLA RISBRIDGER, AUTHOR OF THE KITCHEN BOOK – GOOD FOOD FOR EVERY DAY
Use vegetables as centrepieces
Chef and food writer Helen Graham turns vegetables into centrepieces to cut down on meat and fish expenses.
Add pantry items
Graham’s recipes include a braised cabbage with a preserved lemon sauce, a roast cauliflower with saffron, and harrisa roast carrots with mango labneh.
How to host on a budget
Improve the everyday
Guests will always appreciate a stellar interpretation of the ordinary. Think lasagna or curry.
Generosity
Cooking dinner for your guests is spoiling them – you’re being generous with your time, your effort, and your home. So don’t feel the need to go overboard elsewhere.
Ask for help
Ask friends to bring a contribution, be it a nibble or a pudding.
Big platter energy
[Presentation] can be the key to elevating something . Spaghetti and tomato sauce suddenly looks like a feast when tumbled on a lovely big plate, dressed with olive oil and parmesan and placed in the middle of the table.
Food writer and editor Eleanor Steafel
How to host on a budget
Taco party
Have one expensive filling, like shredded chicken, and two cheaper options, like refried beans, says Ella Risbridger.
Sundaes
Shop-bought ice cream is so easily zhuzhed up with the help of handy toppings, says Eleanor Steafel.
Low-effort tricks for
a cleaner house
While many Britons feel inspired to tackle their homes during summer, the warmer months can also make cleaning harder.
But Lynsey Crombie, known as the Queen of Clean, says the hotter months can increase mould, musty smells and sweaty clothes.
Here, she shares the tips and practical
hacks she lives by.
Every 30 washes, clean the machine
A study of 1,000 UK residents by Domestic & General revealed that almost one in 10 Brits have never cleaned their washing machine, yet it could be grubbier than the toilet seat.
Crombie says after 30 washes, use 500 grams of soda crystals on the hottest wash to clean out the drum. If there’s sludge, run a quick rinse cycle with some white vinegar.
Always make sure to leave the door and drawer ajar for 10 minutes to dry out too and avoid stale smells.
Household ingredients to use
White vinegar
This is Crombie’s go to. It can descale the kettle and taps and deodorise places in her home.
Table salt
For tough stains like red wine, rub salt into the stain, leave overnight and wash as normal.
Lemons
For stubborn water marks, use half a lemon and bicarbonate of soda and leave on for 30 minutes before rinsing.
Cold water is better
You’re damaging [wooden] floor [with hot water], making it expand, stretch
and cause gaps…
During hot days, Crombie says to avoid cleaning with hot water altogether to avoid adding humidity to the home.
“Cold water is much better, and if you’re using the right floor cleaning product, it’s still going to be clean,” she says.
Hacks for a cleaner home
Three is the magic number
Wash your towels after two to three uses and make sure they dry properly in-between.
TOTO toilets
www.gb.toto.com
Image supplied by
Julienne Webster
Focus on hotspots
Clean the “high traffic” areas, like the toilets, kitchen worktops and the hallway daily.
Open the windows
To keep a home fresh open the windows for 15 minutes each day – even in colder months.
Weekly habits
Do it more frequently, to cut down how long it takes
Photographer: Maryviolet
Provider: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Source: iStockphoto
One task Crombie does weekly is her fridge. This includes a 10-minute wipe-down, focusing on the salad and vegetable tray. “If you save that job up and do it every other month, it’s going to be a very big chore.”
LIFESTYLE
4 min read
Hacks for a cleaner home
Photographer: SEBASTIEN BOZON
Provider: AFP via Getty Images
Source: AFP
Copyright: AFP or licensors
Stainless steel
Crombie’s hack is one product: Barkeeper’s Friend in powder form.
The expensive products
“If you spend more money, you get the floral scents. The difference is scent, not performance.”
Ignore online advice
The biggest issue she sees is product overuse. “You don’t need half a bottle of washing up liquid to clean a surface.”
Crombie’s essentials
Four products can do do a full clean of the house.
- Antibacterial washing-up liquid: “It can clean almost anything, and any brand works.”
- M&S Fabric Refresher spray: It’s pet-friendly, eco-friendly and “ticks all the boxes.”
- Cif cream cleaner: “It’s an old school product. It’s so good.”
- White vinegar: ““It’s great for washing sportswear, gym kits and is a great stain remover.”
How to keep your sex life going in a heatwave
Don’t endure it
For some people, the heat and the sun boost the production of hormones responsible for joy, pleasure and connection like serotonin and dopamine. For others, the heat causes fatigue and irritability. For them, being touched can set off an anxiety response.
GEMMA NICE [BELOW]
Don’t endure sweaty cuddles
- Long-term partners can be upfront and honest with each other and say that it’s too hot to touch right now.
- For others, break the tension by having an open and honest conversation.
- Choose dates with built-in air conditioning, like the cinema.
- Don’t ignore the issue or
power through if you’re too hot.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
How couples can manage a heatwave
Take penetrative sex off the table
It may make you feel lightheaded, tired, and can even lead to erectile dysfunction because the body is overheating.
(Photo: RealPeopleGroup/ Getty Images/ iStockphoto)
Indulge in dirty talk instead
Because you aren’t distracted by physical movement, your focus is entirely on your partner’s voice. This can help build a massive amount of tension and sexual desire.
How couples can manage a heatwave
Photographer: svetikd
Provider: Getty Images
Source: E+
Copyright: SVETIKD
Breathwork
This syncs up your nervous systems and can trigger a deep, full-body energetic response.
Mutual play
Set up a fan and touch yourselves while looking directly into each other’s eyes, says Nice.
Strip and chill out
Just sharing the space and being close to each other can strengthen your bond.
Why you shouldn’t have
sex in the sea
- Water actually washes away
your body’s natural lubrication. - It creates friction against the delicate tissue.
- This can cause micro tears and severe irritation.
- It drastically increases the risk of getting a urinary tract infection (UTI) or a yeast infection.
LIFESTYLE
4 min read
The one easy habit which keeps your
brain young
From adopting a different running route to taking up a new hobby, here are seven ways in which new experiences can dramatically alter your brain health for the better.
Why we need new experiences
A well-connected brain is more resilient to stress, illness and the effects of ageing.
Neurologist Dr Steve Allder says when we try unfamiliar things, our brain is forced to work in new ways.
Over time, this improves the brain’s ability to adapt to change and respond to challenges, helping us to preserve thinking skills and emotional balance.
Why we need new experiences
They strengthen memory formation
Regularly exposing yourself to new situations – even small ones – helps exercise your memory systems, which improves your ability to store and retrieve information.
They improve overall learning ability
Just as muscles adapt to new exercises, the brain adapts to new mental demands. As we age the brain then benefits from regular stimulation and maintains sharpness.
Why we need new experiences
Photographer: Morsa Images
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Digital Vision
Boosts dopamine
New experiences naturally stimulate dopamine, which encourages positive behaviour patterns.
Reduce cognitive decline
New experiences activate different brain regions, helping to keep more areas working.
Photographer: Halfpoint Images
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Problem-solving
Your brain must evaluate options, test ideas and adjust its approach.
The benefits of new experiences
Each time you adapt successfully to something new, your brain learns that change can be handled. This improves emotional flexibility, making it easier to cope with stress and unexpected events.
They also often involve other people, whether through travel or social activities. This stimulate areas of the brain
responsible for communication, empathy and understanding others’ perspectives.
Your sleep has a huge impact on your heart health
How sleep and your heart
health are linked
- Adults who regularly sleep fewer than seven hours are at increased risk of high blood pressure, obesity, heart attack and diabetes.
- The risk of coronary artery disease is 45 per cent higher in adults with short sleep durations at night.
LIFESTYLE
4 min read
The bedtime habits that reduce risk
Consistency
Keep daytime naps to less than 20 minutes and aim for seven to eight hours sleep per night.
Wind down
A reasonable 20-30 minute bedtime routine can include reading, light stretching, and meditation.
Photographer: Xavier Lorenzo
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Time your exercise
Vigorous exercise within three hours of bedtime can cause insomnia.
The bedroom environment
Sleeping in a bedroom with bright overhead light has been associated with a higher risk of major cardiovascular events, including heart attack (47 per cent higher risk), stroke (28 per cent) and heart failure.
Darken the room with blackout blinds or an eye mask, avoid blue light and leave your mobile phone outside your bedroom.
The bedtime habits that reduce risk
Food and drink
Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and large evening meals can all disrupt sleep quality.
Know your numbers
If your blood pressure at bedtime is consistently high, consider discussing medication with your GP.
Beware of snoring
Sleep-disordered breathing is linked with cardiovascular conditions, so it could be time for a GP evaluation.
HEALTH
Reflecting on the early signs of dementia
Three families reflect on the early signs of the illness, which affected their parents.
They include the things they missed or dismissed, what they’d do differently and what they’d want other people in the same position to know.
Robert and his mother Joyce
She fell for a scam
One of the first incidents that rang alarm bells for Robert was his mum falling victim to a suspected scam from someone selling mattresses door-to-door.
She also started to struggle with cooking and making her special dishes she’d been making for decades without a problem.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
Did he tell his mother?
We [had] just sort of played along with everything. But on one particularly bad day, I blurted it out over the phone, ‘Because you’ve got dementia, mum!’ She threatened to kill herself, which was very scary. Maybe it’s something I should have explained properly to her from the get-go.
JOYCE WAS DIAGNOSED WITH ALZHEIMER’S IN HER EARLY SEVENTIES
Rosie became a carer
in her early thirties
I think we missed some of the really early subtle signs.
Rosie’s mother was diagnosed with Young Onset Alzheimer’s Disease at 58 but some symptoms, like brain fog, were put down to the menopause.
She had become more forgetful, and was repeating herself, but as she had always “been scatty” it was dismissed.
She became fixated
It was on strange things like going to the same buffet.
Chloe was just 14 when her mum, Sarah, was diagnosed with young onset frontotemporal dementia, a rare form of the disease.
Another time Sarah, who was diagnosed in her forties, forgot how to boil an egg.
On Saturdays, when she’d usually go shopping, she’d go out and come straight back home, almost like she was forgetting
what she was going out for.
Unused or unwanted subscriptions cost consumers £1.6bn.
Writer Sadhbh O’Sullivan looked into her own forgotten subscriptions when she became a first-time buyer, and realised how much she was wasting on things she wasn’t using.
Peter Dazeley/Getty/The Image Bank RF)
The hidden spends that go unnoticed
I’d long considered myself to be quite a reasonable spender.
But the hidden costs across her bank accounts, like free trials that hadn’t been cancelled and memberships for abandoned services, proved otherwise.
It was full of small amounts, £2.99 here, £4.50 there. These small amounts added up.
The ghost subscriptions
Sadhbh isn’t alone.
19%
According to a Nationwide survey almost one in five Brits don’t use every platform they pay for.
The bank suggests they could save as much as £400 a year by ditching them.
4.7 million
National Trading Standards’ 2025 research found 4.7 million people were paying for subscriptions they didn’t know they’d signed up for.
In 2024, a government report found unused and unwanted subscriptions cost consumers up to £1.6bn a year.
How to deal with the subscriptions
Hunt them down
Banking apps usually list your ‘subscriptions’ separately from direct debits and standing orders so you can easily spot what you’re shelling out on.
(juststock/Getty Images/iStockphoto/ NIPITPHON)
Check everything
You can be debited through credit cards, E-payment services, your mobile phone bill, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
How to deal with subscriptions
Be honest
Don’t vow to use a subscription you’re not going to, even if you
have good intentions.
Look over 13 months
Many businesses have changed from monthly to annual payments so look further back.
(Photo: Martin Prescott/Getty)
Future proof
Make sure to track any subscriptions you have kept so you can cancel them, if need be, in future.
Don’t be afraid of phone calls
If companies don’t let you cancel online, don’t fear the customer service line.
- With TV and broadband, call the new customer number as it’s often answered more quickly.
- If you’re happy with the service, but not the price, speak to a real person that may offer a better deal.
- Look for a phone number and press the ‘thinking of leaving us’ option. It’s usually a fast track to a team with authority to offer bigger discounts.
When the article was posted on social media, a number of the responses of readers were painfully predictable.
“High!? 5 per cent isn’t high! Try 12 per cent.”
The reaction is the same when I write about the concern people who are renewing their mortgage have – with responses often coming from those in their sixties and seventies.
These people likely bought their first homes in the 1970s and 1980s. As a result they would have faced the extremely high and volatile mortgage rates seen during that period.
In 1989, the Bank of England’s base rate – which has a heavy bearing on loan costs – peaked at nearly 15 per cent, with mortgage rates averaging 14.44 per cent across that year as a result, according to building society data.
Average rates today, which Moneyfacts data suggests are around 5.48 per cent, pale in comparison.
But here’s the key thing. Let’s say you bought your property two years ago, and your mortgage is now coming up for renewal.
You have a bought at an average 2024 price of £262,000 with a 10 per cent deposit on a 25-year term.
Now, at a 5.48 per cent mortgage rate, your new mortgage is likely to cost you around £1,450 per month. Average wages are £39,000, so annually, this equates to around 45 per cent of a typical gross wage.
Let’s compare that to someone two years into a mortgage in 1989. House prices two years prior had averaged around £36,000.
Two years in, assuming a similar deposit and term length, they will be looking at a mortgage of around £400 on that 14.44 per cent rate. Average wages were around £14,000, so annually, this equates to around 35 per cent of a typical pre-tax wage.
In other words, the higher house prices now means simply comparing 1980s mortgage rates to today’s is not a fair comparison.
Three years ago, analysis for The i Paper by Savills estate agency, similarly found that 2020s first-time buyers have it worse than those in the late 1980s, when the difficulty of saving for a deposit and mortgage payments were both factored in.
If you’re a young person you’ll undoubtedly know this already but it seemingly still needs explaining.
Obviously, you can do the calculations lots of different ways and come to slightly different figures.
You can also point out extra factors that those in the 1980s had to contend with – the rise in mortgage rates as more sudden than seen recently, people were having to deal with larger scale unemployment, and more families got by on a single income.
But the simple conclusion is that mortgage rates alone, whilst currently lower than they were in decades gone by, do not tell the full story.
Our current housing market has been built upon years and years of low rates. Buyers now are more sensitive to higher rate and a mortgage rate of 5 per cent is undoubtedly high for most.
So, if you’re in your 60s and telling young people today that their mortgage rates aren’t that bad actually, it might be time to consider how much value you’re adding to the debate, or if you’re being a bit of a pub bore.