T

he number of mortgages offered to home buyers increased in July but numbers were still less than the monthly average for the previous six months, figures from the Bank of England show.

There were 47,312 approvals last month, up from 44,124 in June but down on the 51,000 approvals recorded in the previous six months.Mortgage approvals are a good indicator of near term trends in lending to home buyers and much hope has been pinned on the recently announced Funding for Lending scheme to inject more and cheaper loans into the market.Launched at the beginning of August, it will be months before it begins to have an effect, according to the Bank of England