There's mixed reaction from the county's experts on the Bank of England’s decision to cut the base rate by half of one per cent today.

The UK rate move - which had not been expected until Thursday - reduced the interest rate to 4.5 per cent.

Jagjit Chadha, Canterbury-based professor of economics at the University of Kent, said: "This is welcome news for our economy, it was necessary and we should be glad that this action was taken.

"Banks are essentially needing more capital because they have over extended and we, as individuals need lower interest rates because we have over extended."

But Mike Lazenby, chief executive of Kent Reliance Building Society, said he was glad the Bank had cut the rate but it had not affected the inter-bank lending rate which remained well above base.

"It will make no difference to the inter-bank market," he said. "The Bank of England rate doesn’t solve any problems, so it’s completely irrevelant in the current climate."

While the change might mean a cut in society interest rates for tracker mortgages, borrowers on a standard variable rate were unlikely to see any changes.

He said the Chatham-based society had no immediate plans to cut interest rates for savers but the situation would be reviewed in the next few days.

As for the Government’s £500bn banking rescue package, he did not think it would help much.

He said:"It doesn’t solve the problem that banks don’t trust each other, so they’re not lending to each other."

Mr Lazenby was also concerned that the banks’ rescue package would help them offer rate-leading products and pose unfair competition to "prudent" building societies.

Mr Lazenby said the Government should have copied the Irish government and guaranteed all deposits.

He said: "As soon as the Irish Government said that, everything was fine.

"It took the heat out of the situation and nobody panicked in Ireland."

Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, Canada and Sweden and Switzerland all took similar action in the co-ordinated move aimed at steadying the global economy.