The latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show that mortgage lending has fallen by 50% annually.

There were 46,500 new home loans in March, compared with 89,000 in March 2007. The figures show that new mortgage lending has been declining month by month with March's mortgage lending levels falling by 700 compared to February's.

The reasons for this are well documented: the weakness of the credit markets and the bursting of the property bubble. This was admitted to by the CML, the trade body representing the largest mortgage lenders like Halifax and Nationwide. Their statement read that  "... the continued decline in lending for house purchase is partly due to the shortage of funding in the mortgage market as a result of credit market conditions."

CML director general, Michael Coogan, wasn't optimistic that the situation will improve in the short term "House purchase transaction volumes will continue to deteriorate in the coming months as recent approvals data from the Bank of England has shown.

"Since the introduction of the Special Liquidity Scheme, there has been a slight improvement in credit market conditions with LIBOR moving in a more helpful direction. But LIBOR still remains high relative to the Bank rate and any improvement in credit market conditions will take time to feed through into the mortgage market."