The Bank of England must take more action to ease the credit crises according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) which reported that gross mortgage lending in February was seven per cent lower than January and six per cent lower than a year ago.

CML director general Michael Coogan said that demand for mortgages remained strong and that lenders could not currently meet demand without action to improve access to funds: "There will be ongoing problems in the mortgage funding markets unless the Bank of England makes new, broader based attempts to improve levels of liquidity in the UK".

He added that the credit crunch had led to many lenders to cut the range of mortgages on offer, increase their mortgage prices and, in some cases, reduce their lending capacity.
He predicted that mortgage offers would be chopped and changed in the coming weeks.
"As credit conditions change markedly from day to day, lenders will continue to rapidly adapt their products and pricing to match".