£9.5bn withdrawn from Funding for Lending in Q4

The data revealed that 11 participants made FLS drawdowns in the quarter as the total amount drawn from the scheme reached £13.8bn.

The BoE said net lending by FLS participants over the quarter was -£2.4bn and there are now 39 groups participating in the scheme which covers over 80% of the stock of lending to the real economy.

The data revealed a continuation of the trend of broadly flat lending growth during the quarter however the BoE said the improvement in credit conditions is expected to lead to a gradual pick up in net lending over the course of 2013.

Paul Fisher, executive director for markets at the Bank of England, said: “The FLS has clearly shifted the supply of credit; loans are generally available at lower cost than previously.

“Even though lending rates have fallen, it is still quite early for much extra money to have flowed from the application stage into actual loans compared with previous plans which showed that lending was most likely to fall in aggregate without the FLS.

“I would not expect to see a return to rising aggregate quantities until we start getting data for 2013 at the earliest.

“Nevertheless, it does seem that we have the beginnings of a revival in mortgage activity which is visible in the approvals data and that trend is widely supported by business contacts throughout the country.”