According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, gross lending was around £14.6 billion in November which represents a 22% decline in total lending since the previous month. This may give us an indication on the seriousness of the current credit situation, however, the situation becomes even more apparent when you compare the monthly lending figure to that of November 2007. CML estimates that there has been a 51% decline in gross lending from November last year.

The CML have forecast that it is likely that as we move into 2009 this reduction in lending will continue. They suggest that the, “housing market activity will remain extremely subdued, with around 700,000 housing transactions in 2009, down from around 900,000 this year and 1.6 million in 2007”. This is turn is said to reduce the amount of over all lending to £145 billion in comparison to £363 in 2007.

 
They attribute these circumstances to the current deterioration in the economy and low demand in the residential housing market as well as the ongoing struggle to actually get credit in the current climate.

Perhaps worse still, they anticipate that there will be an increased number of people with mortgage arrears than in 2008. CML estimates this number to be at 500,000 by the end of 2009, an increase of over 100% from 2008.