Net new mortgage lending is likely to fall to less than zero next year, according to a report commissioned by the Treasury from Sir James Crosby, the former chief executive of HBOS, owner of the Halifax. Sir James is warning that as homeowners are paying off mortgages, banks are putting less money back into the housing market than they are taking out.

That's a first, apparently, in the history of the mortgage, and it doesn't bode well for house prices, employment, the economy.

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