“The fact that approvals for house purchases, remortgaging and other loans have each fallen year-on-year shows once more how important it is to open the door of the Funding for Lending Scheme to the non-banking sector.
“Optimism was high at the turn of the year that great strides would be seen in total gross mortgage lending for 2013, particularly after four consecutive months of increasing purchase mortgage approvals by the main High Street banks. However in the first two months of the year we have seen almost £1.4bn less purchase mortgage lending and more than 7,500 fewer purchase loans approved, compared with last year.
“It is understandable that many banks are sticking to their tight criteria in the current climate, but inviting the non-banking sector to access incentivised funding would be one way to help lenders deliver more for UK borrowers.”