Banks offering ultra-long 40-year mortgages are guilty of “irresponsible” lending, experts have warned. As interest rates have risen, long-term mortgages with lower monthly repayments have grown in popularity, fuelled by young buyers desperate to get onto the housing ladder. However, Sir Steve Webb, a former pensions minister, said banks had no way of knowing whether mortgages would continue to be affordable in retirement. He added: “If you are lending to someone in their 30s, it’s pretty much impossible to know what their pension will be – so how can any lender be confident the mortgage will be affordable decades in future? “The borrower is taking the risk here – they are the ones who will have to empty out their pension pot to clear off any remaining mortgage balance. There is a risk of irresponsible lending. “The young borrower just wants a house, they want to stop paying rent and start on the housing ladder, and if paying into retirement is the cost, then they will just sign on the dotted line. “Lending into retirement should be the exception, not the norm for young borrowers. The lender has to be more responsible. If nearly one in two mortgages now go...