Gross lending on track to hit its £140bn target
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Gross lending is still on track to hit £140bn in 2011, despite the top three lenders slashing their business, the Council of Mortgage Lenders says.
Combined, the Lloyds Banking Group, Santander and Royal Bank of Scotland reduced their gross mortgage lending by 46% in the first six months of the year.
This is in stark contrast to a number of building societies that have increased their lending.
Combined, Skipton, Yorkshire, and Coventry building societies upped their gross mortgage lending by a whopping 537%.
A spokeswoman for the CML says it stands by its forecast, but adds: “We regularly keep our forecasts under review and they were most recently updated at the start of June. We will continue to monitor them.”
It raised its 2011 forecast for gross mortgage lending by £5bn to £140bn in June and its latest figures show lending in the first half of this year totalled £63.7bn.
If lending in the second half of the year mirrors that of the first half, gross lending would total about £127bn. But, the CML says historically Q3 of the year always sees an increase in lending.
Last week the European Mortgage Federation warned that UK lenders’ repayment commitments to the Special Liquidity Scheme would continue to restrict mortgage lending for the rest of 2011.
In the EMF’s Q1 2011 quarterly review, it says that in the first five months of this year British lenders have repaid more of the support funds than had been previously arranged in the voluntary repayment plan.
In May, £148bn had been repaid of the £185bn lent under the SLS, compared to £94bn in February.
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