The Bank of England has just released its statistics on lending to individuals for June – the report includes figures on net lending secured on dwellings – which is broken down into house purchases and remortgages.

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The report will be of interest to those SME owners and managers whose lines to credit are similar to those of households and individual consumers. While total net lending to consumers is indeed increasing it is slowing – giving more and more substance to the phrase UK citizens have all now become familiar with – the credit crunch. Further slowdowns in the growth of credit provision can be expected in the coming months as lending institutions remain cautious. A report today released by the Treasury expects the shortage of mortgage finance to persist until at least the end of 2010.Overall lending The total net lending to individuals in June stood at £4b. Mays total was £5.1b representing an increase of 0.3%. The increase between April and May was 0.4%. A slowing trend has been recorded for the past 4 months. When compared to the same period last year it would appear that the growth in lending stood at 7.4% – year on year this is lower than the figures for the past 4 months. The year on year growth for March stood at 8.7%. Housing market also slows – govt may step in In all the increase in net lending secured on dwellings was £3.1 billion, this figure is below the increase in May and the previous six-month average. These figures will come as no surprise to a housing market that is starting to see house prices stop rising and in some circumstances fall as a result of tighter credit lines. The numbers of loans approved for house purchase stood at 36,000, remortgaging at 84,000 and other purposes 45,000. All figures were lower than in May. The government in recognising the housing market crisis has indicated that they may have to give a taxpayer guarantee to billions of pounds of mortgage market bonds.This comes with a report commissioned by the Treasury that has suggested possible options to reviving the housing industry through stimulating the mortgage market. The assessment of the outlook for mortgage finance is due to be published later by Sir James Crosby, the deputy chairman of the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority. Credit cards The increase in net consumer credit in June was £0.9b which is below that in May and the previous six?month average. Net credit card lending rose by £0.4b also below the increase in May.The annual growth rate of consumer credit slowed by 0.2 percentage points to 6.8%; the three-month annualised growth rate fell by 0.6 percentage points to 5.7%.