The Bank of England has revealed that the number of loan approvals for house purchase fell in April to 45,166, the lowest level for that month since the central bank began collating records in 1992.

The figure was lower than the previous six-month average of 46,179.

There were 28,091 approvals for remortgaging and 19,970 for other purposes, down on the previous six-month averages (32,534 and 21,138 respectively).

Brian Murphy, head of lending at Mortgage Advice Bureau, said: “The raft of Bank Holidays and the Royal Wedding inevitably skewed the April data