Mortgage lenders see market rebound - papers 17th Feb

According to the paper, banking group B&B lent £4.7bn in the second half of 2005, almost double the £2.7bn of the first half, while Britannia said its mortgage lending climbed to an "all-time high" of £6.9bn in the whole of last year. B&B's net lending figures showed that it took in £2.2bn more than was paid out in the second half, a sharp contrast with the first six months of 2005 when the bank lent out more than it took in from home loans being paid off. Steven Crawshaw, chief executive of B&B, said business had rebounded as confidence returned to the housing market. He said demand fo...