The mortgage market in the UK is consistently working towards further innovation, making it the best of its kind in Europe, it has been claimed.

The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), commenting on the state of the market in general, noted that lenders such as Halifax are looking at "a more risk-based approach to lending".

AMI policy analyst Andrew Strange said that borrowers on unconventional incomes were now more likely to be catered for by someone in the market because of such trends.

"Clearly, the mortgage market in the UK is the most innovative in Europe […] things are always changing and improving," Mr Strange commented.

"On occasions it is appropriate to use self certification, [and] there's a whole variety of reasons for that. If you say that self certification is bad, actually the consumer detriment is that the people out there who genuinely use these products correctly will be missing out: the self employed, people with multiple incomes – bonuses, that kind of thing," he added.