"These moves underline the reality of a complex mortgage market, still very short of funds. There has already been a natural and dramatic reduction in the number of high LTV, sub-prime, self-cert and buy-to-let products on the market. As a result it's very difficult for many existing borrowers to remortgage let alone for new borrowers enter the market.
"In the latest IMLA survey brokers clearly expect the situation to get worse - they believe sub-prime and self-cert funding will be hit even harder in 2009. Just 4% of mortgages sourced by intermediaries in the final three months of 2008 were sub-prime and despite the benefits of lower interest rates feeding through, the shortage of products is now a real pressure on these borrowers.
"The government rightly wants to help homeowners facing repossession stay in their homes - but they have not yet addressed the root of the problem. There is simply not enough money in the mortgage market from the full range of lenders.
"The number of people with what are now seen as imperfect credit histories is increasing rapidly. The government needs to help expand funding to help these people - this is a two-way street. The government must extend their support for the mortgage market to include the full range of lenders including non-deposit takers - it will free them up to offer specialist products to parts of the market which are most in need."
