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Plans to help borrowers secure more affordable rates for long-term fixed-rate mortgages, announced in Alistair Darling’s pre-Budget proposals, are unlikely to increase demand significantly, experts say.

“Mortgages of up to 25 years have been available for some time but are not very popular, as they are obviously not a very flexible contract to be in,” said Richard Farr, director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries.

“They have little impact on helping people on to the property ladder, as they do not address issues of affordability.”

In the past few months Halifax, Nationwide, Norwich and Peterborough and Yorkshire building societies have all launched 25-year fixed-rate mortgages but long-term deals still make up only a fraction of mortgages brokered.

Fixed-rate deals offer borrowers a guaranteed rate of interest for a set period of time with two-year fixed rates currently the most popular product on offer on the market. Long-term fixed rates, by comparison, are higher than those offered for short-term deals in order to reflect the increased risk taken on by the lender but advisers say that this is not the only reason they are unpopular.

Many borrowers, they say, find it difficult to make plans that exceed a few years and are, therefore, unwilling to tie themselves to long-term deals that penalise them for altering their arrangements.

“The government seems to be focusing on supply and ways to make it easier for lenders to offer long-term products,” said James Cotton, mortgage specialist at London & Country Mortgages. “But the industry should be looking at demand. Offering more products is not going to solve the problem.”