Lending figures from the Bank of England which revealed a 60% fall in mortgage lending in March, as a result of property market not moving. The net lending after redemptions and repayments, which was £1.71 billion in January and £950m on February, went down to £374 million in March.

Though there were more minor increases in the number of mortgages approved for house purchase in March, it rose to 47,557 which is the highest level since November last year.

The figure however, remains down on 48,967 loans which were said to be in the pipeline in March 2010, and critically below the 70,000 to 80,000. Economists consider the month to be consistent with a stable housing market.

Samuel Tombs, UK economist at Capital Economics, stated that though the house prices are stagnant and there being minor rises, the Bank of England's measure of mortgage approvals for new house purchase increased from
46,700 to 47,600 in the month, which took the approvals back to its rate in November.

Moreover, loans that are not protected are still subdued, with credit card as loan and overdraft debt rose by just £108 million during March, compared with to the increase of £784 million in February.