According to the Bank of England’s latest Financial Stability Report the worst of the credit crunch could now be over. The Bank believes that the scale of losses resulting from the crisis may be overstated and that if financial institutions continue to talk pessimistically about their plight it may well turn into a self fulfilling prophecy.

That’s the good news. The bad news for homeowners and the housing industry in general is that this announcement will have no impact whatsoever on lenders, their mortgage rates, or on the number of mortgage products available.

The reason is the same now as it has been for many months. The banks would love to be able to lend, but there is simply not enough money around to do so. The banks which would often raise money in America can’t do so because the people that provided the billions of pounds that they then lent in the form of mortgages have lost their appetite for anything to do with property. The collapse of the US housing market has seen to that.

Money is available in the EU, but it pales into insignificance compared to monies previously available from the States. The £50billion that the Bank of England recently made available to our lenders is a start, but it is only that. Many more billions will have to be made available before new products are launched and rates begin to come down.

Over to you Governor.