Lenders dismiss UK housing boom fears Mortgage lending held steady in August at £16bn, according to new data, as the trade body for lenders dismissed concerns about a housing boom emerging. Gross lending was an estimated £16.6bn last month, edging only slightly down from the £16.7bn lent in July, according to figures published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders on Thursday. However, lending is up more than a quarter from the £13bn in August last year. CML used the figures to hit out at growing concerns of an impending housing bubble. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday showed that average house prices rose 3.7 per cent during the 12 months to July to £255,000, surpassing the 2008 zenith. Bob Pannell, chief economist at the CML, said: "One tell-tale sign of a recovering housing market is the re-emergence of concerns about a housing boom . . . But, as we have argued elsewhere, the housing market recovery to date appears fairly unexceptional in nature, at least compared with that of the early-mid 1990s. Mr Pannell argued that the country was beginning to experience a "healthy and broad-based recovery" in mortgage lending activity. He added: "Worryingly for the "boomsters," it is hard to find evidence of much debt-fuelled borrowing, to stoke a runaway housing market." On Wednesday, George Osborne, the chancellor, dismissed fears that the UK's property market was overheating. Answering questions at the annual convention of the Institute of Directors in London, the chancellor said house prices outside Londonwere barely rising, point out that housing sales and mortgage approvals were still well below the boom years. He defended the second, and most controversial, phase of his Help to Buy scheme, which critics have said will push up demand without boosting housebuilding supply.