Mortgage holders with a few bob to spare or who are in line for a lump sum or bonus, would be wise to use these funds to pay down some of their borrowings. With interest rates at record low levels, investors could arguably get a better return on any additional funds by lodging them to a loan or mortgage account rather than placing them on deposit. Putting an extra £20 or £50 a month into a deposit account for instance will yield a minimal return, which will then be subject to DIRT tax at 20 per cent. Similar regular payments off your mortgage could save you thousands of pounds in interest.

The experts say that while mortgage interest relief makes the monthly mortgage bill more manageable, it has now been reduced to such low levels that any likely impact on reducing your tax relief is hardly worth consideration.

EBS head of lending, Mr Martin Walsh says it is always advisable to pay down your mortgage if you can. Even relatively small extra payments can substantially reduce the length of your mortgage and dramatically reduce the amount of interest you pay.

An £80,000 mortgage taken out for 20 years at current EBS variable rates, would incur monthly repayments of around £625 a month. For an extra £15 a month, you could reduce your mortgage to 19 years, according to Mr Walsh. While an additional monthly repayment of £50 would shave three years off the term of that mortgage.

By reducing the term of the mortgage from 20 years to 17 years, mortgage holders stand to save £21,000 in interest payments to the society.