High street banks approved 43,276 mortgages for house purchase last month – 13.5% up on September last year.

Altogether there were 85,880 mortgages approved by the main high street banks last month. Remortgage approvals were 23.4% higher than in September 2018.

However, trade body UK Finance noted that September last year was a particularly subdued month for the mortgage market.

The organisation also noted that credit card spending, at £11bn, was just over 10% higher than in September last year, but said that repayments were in line with the increase.

The level of credit card borrowing grew 3% in the year to last month, while personal borrowing through loans in September was almost 10% higher than in the same month in 2018.