Mortgage borrowing ‘set to slow’

Home loan borrowing activity in the UK is set to slow over the course of 2008, according to the latest assessment of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The council has revealed that the scale of lending among its members fell by around eight per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007.

For many people, the prospect of a mortgage-related debt management burden worth tens of thousands of pounds is proving to be enough to deter them from entering the housing market in the current climate.

With this in mind, the CML has called on the Bank of England to cut its base rate of interest to encourage more borrowing and lending activity in the sector.

Michael Coogan, the CML’s director general, said: “We await the eagerly anticipated announcement of further action by the Bank of England to respond to these rapidly worsening market conditions.”

A number of leading British money lenders have added to their customers’ difficulties in becoming debt free recently by upping their interest rates despite a base rate cut earlier this month.