Mortgage lending saw £900m fall in February

The annual growth rate, however, remained little changed at 1.9%, although gross lending did increase by nearly £3bn – going from £21.7bn to £24.3bn. Gross repayments also went up, growing from £16.3bn to £19.8bn.

Turning to net mortgage approvals for house purchases, this fell by 600 to 65,500, while approvals for remortgaging decreased by 800 to 32,000.

Reflecting on these figures, Broadstone’s senior director of risk, Richard Pinch, said:“Continued economic uncertainty, stickier inflation and therefore interest rates, plus the end of the Stamp Duty holiday all appear to be conspiring to deter home buyers, with both mortgage borrowing and approvals falling in February.

“Despite the strength of the property market in terms of pricing, it is clear that there is still considerable fragility in consumer confidence at the minute.

“As global economies hold their breath while they wait to see the detail and impact of President Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday, it seems unlikely that sentiment will strengthen in the near term, although there is still the prospect of at least a couple of interest rate cuts from the Bank of England.”

Net borrowing of consumer credit by individuals, meanwhile, decreased by £300m to £1.4bn. Within this, net borrowing through credit cards fell to £800m, while net borrowing through other forms of consumer credit remained at £600m.

In addition to this, the annual growth rate for all consumer credit remained stable at 6.4%, with credit card borrowing increasing to 8.9% and other forms of consumer credit falling to 5.2%.

Pinch said: “Consumers tightened their belts in February as decreases in credit card borrowing drove the overall drop in consumer credit volumes. Household budgets remain constrained, and the outlook has dimmed with a series of bill increases set to kick in from tomorrow onwards, which will further exacerbate cost pressures.”

Turning to household deposits, these increased by £4.3bn – mostly driven by households depositing an additional £3.6bn into ISAs. Households also deposited £500m each into interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing sight accounts, while they withdrew £700m from interest-bearing time accounts.