Alistair darling yesterday urged mortgage lenders to cut the cost of home loans, as policy makers voice concerns about the housing market. The housing market has slowed over the past few months after years of double-digit growth and lenders, hit by the credit crunch have curbed new lending.

In a joint statement by lenders, they agreed that the Bank of England’s plan to allow banks to swap hard-to-shift mortgage assets for government debt would ease economic pressures and allow them to offer cheaper loans.

The Bank of England announce that consumer lending has increased more than expected for the month of September 2007, 11.2 billion pounds to be exact as compared with only 9.6 billion pounds for August.

Experts certainly didn't have this expectation and also saw some strange turns in the mortgage lending arena as mortgage approvals saw a drop.

Consumer credit in the UK is still increasing.