Bank lending reflects subdued demand

Gross mortgage lending of £8.6bn in June was slightly below the average of the previous six months.

However, high street banks continued to see strong repayments. Net mortgage lending increased by £2.1bn in June compared with £2.5bn in May and £2.9bn for June 2009.

The abolition of HIPs is expected to lead to more houses on the market but so far there has not been any impact on the number of house purchase approvals, which declined slightly in June.

The average value of house purchase approvals (£150,600) was unchanged since the previous month and 9% higher than a year ago.

Numbers of remortgaging and equity withdrawal approvals are at similar levels to May and the previous six months average.

Commenting, BBA statistics director, David Dooks said: "The banks' mortgage lending position was little changed in June.

“The abolition of HIPs and a reported increase in the number of house sellers is expected to encourage activity in the market, though this may be tempered by households' uncertainty over job prospects and the impacts of fiscal tightening.

"Overall lending to business continued to reflect subdued demand, and contraction in lending to most non-financial sectors slowed."