Telegraph: Bank mortgage lending falls by nearly £40bn

British banks dramatically scaled back new mortgage lending in the first half of the year, issuing little more than half the sum they lent in the same period a year earlier.
They also and demanded substantially higher deposits from borrowers in a climate of high caution.
An analysis of interim banking results carried out by The Sunday Telegraph reveals that gross mortgage lending by the high street banks totalled just £50.25bn in the six months to June, down from more than £90bn in the same period a year earlier.