New mortgage lending in UK reaches highest level since 2008

Boom driven by people remortgaging homes to lock- in cheap deals as proportion lent to first-time buyers fallsBritish households are taking on the highest levels of fresh mortgage debt since the beginning of 2008, spurred by low interest rates from the Bank of England, even as the proportion of first-time buyers dwindles. Banks extended new mortgage commitments to borrowers worth £69.6bn in the three months to the end of September, an increase of 14% on the same period in 2016 and the high