Mortgage lending rose at its slowest pace in three years last month. Net mortgage lending increased by £6.5 billion in July, the slowest increase since June 2002 and well below the average of £7.3 billion in the previous six months. But the number of new mortgage approvals which have been agreed but not yet paid out hit a year high in July. Analysts thought the weakness in lending figures was unlikely to worry the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee. George Buckley of Deutsche Bank said: “Net mortgage lending tells us more about where the housing market has been over the last quarter than where it is going over the next.” (FT)