THIS has not been a good year for savers, with average interest rates on all kinds of savings accounts now sitting at their lowest-ever level.

According to financial website Moneyfacts the average no-notice ISA now pays interest of just 0.73 per cent while the average rate on long-term savings bonds has halved in the last year from 1.98 per cent to 0.98 per cent.

Surely it is surprising, then, that Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement announcement of a new National Savings & Investments (NS&I) bond that will pay interest of 2.2 per cent was not more roundly welcomed.

Indeed, Andrew Hagger of financial research service Moneycomms said the new bond is “hardly going to get savers rejoicing from the rooftops” while Martin Lewis, founder and chairman of MoneySavingExpert, said he did not “see many people whooping" about the announcement.

The reason for this is that the maximum anyone will be able to save into the bond, which is due to launch in spring 2017, is £3,000, a sum that must be locked away for three years in order to earn the advertised rate of interest.

Supposing that rate does not change between now and launch, which it might if there is a significant change in rates more generally, that would mean a maximum interest payment of £66 a year or around £200 over three years.

Lewis said this represents “only a marginal improvement” on the current best-buys available in the market, many of which will allow a maximum deposit of £1 million.

For Hagger the launch is “too little too late for UK savers who've suffered for too long at the expense of a government policy hellbent on protecting mortgage borrowers at all costs”.

“It is little more than a token gesture from Hammond trying to paper over the cracks,” he added.

But what are the alternatives?

According to price comparison website Moneysupermarket the best rates currently available are still to be found on current accounts rather than savings accounts, with the Nationwide FlexDirect and TSB Classic Plus accounts both paying interest of five per cent.

In the case of the former that rate will only be paid for the first 12 months after the account is opened and will drop to one per cent thereafter and, while customers must deposit at least £1,000 into the account each month, interest will only be paid on balances of up to £2,500.

With the TSB account, meanwhile, the five per cent on balances of up to £2,000 is only available until January next year, when the rate will fall to three per cent on balances of up to £1,500.

These accounts aside, the best deals currently available are on fixed-rate bonds and, unsurprisingly, the longer savers are willing to lock their cash away for the higher the rate of interest they will earn.

At two per cent the best rate overall is being offered by Progressive Building Society on balances of between £500 and £1m on a five-year bond that does not permit withdrawals or early closures.

The catch, as if the five-year term was not catch enough, is that anyone wanting to take advantage of the rate must either already be a member of the building society or, if they are a new customer, they must be resident in Northern Ireland.

Such requirements are typical of the building society sector, although there are a number of five-year bonds paying 1.95 per cent that do not come with residency requirements.

Hampshire Trust Bank, Sweden’s Ikano Bank and Paragon Bank are among them, with the accounts paying £101.38 over five years for every £1,000 invested.

Crucially, for anyone with more than £3,000 to save, Ikano Bank will accept deposits of up to £1m, Hampshire Trust Bank of up to £250,000 and Paragon Bank up to £100,000, meaning the maximum levels of interest they will pay over five years are £101,380, £25,345 and £10,138 respectively.

For anyone unwilling to lock their cash away for such a long period the highest-paying instant-access ISA is currently being offered by Vernon Building Society, although to take advantage of the 1.85 per cent on offer savers must live within a 25-mile radius of Stockport.

For everyone else, NS&I has an ISA paying one per cent while the rates on the other cash ISAs in the market vary from 0.01 per cent from NatWest to 0.95 per cent on the Nationwide Flexclusive ISA.

Put in this context, Hammond’s savings bond may not be so bad after all, although Mike Gordon, technical director at Rutherford Wilkinson, warned that if history is anything to go by accessing the account may be easier said than done.

“While the Chancellor said two million people are due to benefit, we must remember the NS&I website crashing due to demand with pensioner bonds [which launched in 2014 as a means of getting more over 65s saving for retirement] and so we shouldn’t hold our breath on these,” he said.

The fact that the interest rate on NS&I’s one-year pensioner bond fell from 2.8 per cent to 1.45 per cent at the end of the first year may be of more concern than overburdened technology, though.