Mortgage lending 'at strongest since crisis' Mortgage approvals for house purchases reached an 11-month peak in December, as lenders approved 55,785 new mortgages, against 54,011 a month earlier, according to the Bank of England. The figures also showed that the M4 money supply - a headline measure of the flow of money around the economy - was up by just over 5pc on a year earlier. Figures published last week showed that the economy contracted by 0.3pc in the final three months of last year, raising the prospect of a "triple-dip." The picture for business lending was weaker, however, as net lending to the private sector fell by £2.1bn in December. The average interest rate on new business loans of up to £1m - a proxy for the rates small businesses face - rose to 3.65pc from 3.39pc a month earlier, which signalled that the rate has barely moved over a year. As a result, economists said it was too early to tell whether the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) to boost the flow of credit is having the desired effects. "The jury is out," said David Tinsley, UK economist at BNP Paribas. A household-only boost from the FLS would be better than nothing, but really the rebalancing of the economy will be better served if businesses are part of the story.