Fund brings hope for revival as mortgage approvals sink lower

One of the major obstacles to economic recovery is a lack of credit for companies and households, driven in part by banks’ reluctance to lend due to the higher cost of obtaining funding in wholesale markets.

Banks also blame pressure from regulators to strengthen their balance sheets.

Loans for house purchase have fallen 21 per cent from a year ago to 26,269 – the lowest level since January 2009 when the credit crunch was in full swing, the British Bankers’ Association figures showed.

Analysts and lenders believe extra public holidays and rainy weather were partly to blame for June’s weakness, and so expect a slight rebound this month.

Further down the line, they hope for a boost from the “funding for lending” plan, jointly announced last month by the Treasury and the Bank of England, under which some £80bn of cheap loans will be made available to banks if they lend to households and businesses.

“We are pretty confident that the scheme should have a positive impact on the flow of lending,” said a spokeswoman for the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

RBS, one of Britain’s biggest banks, has already said it will use the scheme, due to start in August, to cut costs for first-time home buyers by offering low interest rates on a number of mortgage deals.

However, some economists doubt “funding for lending” will have a major impact on credit flows, at least in the near term.

“We do not think that the terms of the scheme will sufficiently change the banks’ lending patterns, as they remain under continued pressure to maintain large liquidity buffers and increase their capital ratios,” said a spokeswoman for Barclays.

Moreover, subdued demand is also contributing to sluggishness in the housing market, with consumers wary of borrowing to buy a home at a time of economic uncertainty, high unemployment and Government spending cuts.

Nearly all consumers have seen their living standards fall in the last 12 months, consumer lobby group Which? said in a report on a survey of 2,000 households, adding that people under 30 had faced the greatest squeeze and were failing to save enough.

According to data from mortgage lender Halifax, house prices are still around 20 per cent below their 2007 peak, having tumbled since 2008.