Gross mortgage lending for June was up 15 pct to estimated £13.1 billion according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Mortgage lending overall is unchanged from the first half of last year at £65 billion.

"Our gross lending estimate of £13.1 billion in June represents a seasonal pick-up and is higher than June last year, but is still indicative of low levels of activity." said CML economist Paul Samter.

"There are signs of house prices stabilising and more properties coming onto the market following the abolition of home information packs." he added.

The survey of lending presents around 94 pct all residential mortgages in the UK.
Money supply meanwhile also grew, as M4 the Bank of England's gauge of sterling in circulation was up 0.3 pct year-on-year, although fell slight in June.

A published statistic on Public Sector Net Borrowing however showed a figure of £14.5 billion - still high after rising to £16bn in May and £14.7bn in April.

"June's UK public finances figures put a bit of a dent in hopes that the fiscal position is now on a clearly improving trend." said Capital Economics' Chief Economist, Jonathan Loynes.

"Along with an upward revision to May's deficit, June's borrowing total of £14.5bn left a cumulative deficit in the first three months of the year of £40.3bn, only a fraction below the £40.9bn figure recorded in the same three months of last year. Extrapolating this forward points to a full-year deficit of about £152bn (on the PSNB ex. measure), about £3bn above the OBR's Budget forecast." he added.

'WORSE THAN EXPECTED'

Howard Archer, IHS Global Insight Economist was more worried - "The public finances were worse than expected in June, providing a blunt reminder to Chancellor George Osborne of the major task that he faces in returning the public finances to health." he said.

Howard is worried that despite the hardline action by the Government to tackle the deficit, things remain unchanged:

"Indeed, the Public Sector Net Borrowing Requirement was an eye wateringly high £14.5 billion in June, although at least this was marginally down on the £14.7 billion shortfall a year earlier."

The Bank of England 'Trends in Lending' was also disappointing, said Howard, showing that 'tight lending conditions could hold back the recovery'.