The loans are distributed across intermediary and direct customers. Despite the downturn the bank has increased its customer base to 824,000 mortgage accounts, up almost 40,000 in a year.
Woolwich is also expected to be one of the few large-scale lenders to show a positive net new lending figure, in this case £2.2 billion.
"These figures show our commitment to the market. We continue to believe in the UK mortgage market, and support both intermediaries and direct customers in visible, financial ways," said David Finlay, Intermediary Director at Barclays. "It remains a market of considerable challenge, but the fact remains we are still lending, we have actually increased our lending to UK homeowners, and we are spreading that commitment across both intermediaries and directly through our branch network. We continue to support the market in line with our own growth ambitions and our target customer base."
Further information on Woolwich at half year:
- The average loan to value for new mortgages was 46%.
- The average loan to value of the mortgage book was 44%.
- In April 2009 Barclays made available a further £11 billion in funds available to lend to UK businesses and the UK mortgage market in the downturn. This year so far the bank has made £17 billion in new lending to businesses and households.
