There is no doubt that those who have a mortgage on their homes will be feeling the pinch from recent increases in interest rates.

But the number of households in Kent affected by the rises might be smaller than expected.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has just released details of home ownership based on the returns of the 2021 census.

The data show that a surprisingly high proportion of households already own their homes outright and are not financing a mortgage.

The average proportion of outright ownerships across Kent's 13 local authorities (including Medway) stood at 35% - more than a third.

Dover along with Folkestone and Hythe had the highest proportion of full ownership at 39%, with Canterbury and Sevenoaks not far behind at 38%.

The authorities where there is the smallest proportion were Medway and Gravesham, each at 31%.

In 10 areas, a higher proportion had no mortgage than were paying a mortgage; the reverse was true only for Medway and Dartford, with Gravesham split equally between the two.

In eight areas, there were also fewer people renting than those who owned their property outright.

Only in Medway, Dartford, Gravesham and Thanet was the situation reversed with more renters.

In Tunbridge Wells the proportions were equal on 34%.

Thanet had the highest proportion of people renting at 38%, although in shear numerical terms Medway had the most with 37,621 households paying rent.

The figures include homes rented from the councils, housing associations and private landlords.

The three sets of figures do not add up exactly to 1005 of the housing stock, because we have not included the small number in each area that have a shared ownership scheme with a housing association, nor have we included the even smaller number - a lucky few - who for one reason or another live rent free.

In addition all the figures have been rounded to the nearest whole number.

It seems though that Kent lags slightly behind some other areas when it comes to home ownership.

Across England, the ONS said that a quarter of local authorities had at least 40% of households who owned their home outright.

The London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Westminster had the lowest levels of home ownership.