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Mortgage lending fell again in May. Latest figures show  from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Gross lending amounted to £10.3bn, which was down 2% on April and 58% lower than in May last year.

They said that lending for new  home buyers had risen recently, lending to people remortgaging had sloped off.

Surveys conducted by the Halifax and the Nationwide had suggested the slump in house prices may be tailing off.

But the CML put a dampener on proceedings by stating they did not expect  a significant recovery in sales in the next few months.

“Lending volumes appear to have stabilised at extremely low levels, but the weak labour market and lenders’ limited access to funding will constrain activity for some time yet,” said CML economist Paul Samter.

“Underneath the headline gross lending figure, it’s likely that a moderate improvement in house purchase lending in May has been offset by very low remortgaging volumes as borrowers stay with existing deals.”