Mortgage equity loans plummet

Falling house prices and tight lending criteria have caused the amount of cash borrowed through MEW to tumble by more than 50% over the past year. The Bank of England’s figures reveal the amount of money borrowed against increased home values has fallen to £5.04bn between January and April 2008. The amount of cash raised in this way has fallen 64% from £13.89bn during the same period in 2007. The fall in borrowing in this area is likely to have a major impact on consumer spending in the UK as consumers struggling with high food, fuel and mortgage costs will not be able to access any extr...