The Chancellor and Treasury have sought to clarify proposals calling for HBOS, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to resume lending to homeowners and small businesses “at 2007 levels”.

James Charles, Times Online – 14 Oct 2008

In the House of Commons today the Alistair Darling said that there had been a “misunderstanding” in relation to the Treasury plan, which was announced this morning following the Government’s £37 billion bail-out of the three banks.

The Council of Mortgage Lending (CML) was quick to condemn the original proposals, which included a reference to “maintaining, over the next three years…competitively-priced lending to homeowners and to small businesses at 2007 levels”. The CML said that such a goal was “not prudent” and that it was “very unlikely that we will see lending return to 2007 levels in the near-future.”

But the Chancellor and Treasury have since attempted to calm the dispute. The Treasury told Times Online that the original statement released this morning was making a general point about the desire to ensure that there was a broad range of mortgages available, in general, across the mortgage market. Full Article