Barclays and Lloyds are facing a group legal action brought by hundreds of mortgage borrowers after the High Court granted an order allowing them to sue on a group,rather than an individual basis.

More than 300 homeowners who took out shared appreciation mortgages (SAMs) in the late 1990s are now set to sue the two banks as part of a group litigation arguing that these products were unfair. Barclays and Bank of Scotland, which is now part of Lloyds, sold the mortgages.