The chairman of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has revealed that one million households have become first-time buyers since the credit crunch, accounting for one in 10 of all current mortgage holders.

Speaking at the CML’s annual conference Martijn Van der Heijden added that, despite the rise in some SVRs, the average interest rate being charged to existing mortgage customers has been lower than a year earlier for a full 12 months, and that lending for house purchase is likely to be some 15% higher this year than the CML originally forecast.

“We know – pretty much – what regulation is going to look like. We can be equally certain that at some point it will change. It always does. We cannot rely on regulation as the bedrock on which we build our businesses of the future. But it will be the constant backdrop.

“We know – pretty much – that the UK housing psyche, while a bit bruised, still holds home-ownership extremely dear. At the same time, people know that it is more difficult to achieve than it used to be, and that renting is likely to be a tenure in which most new households will spend at least some time.

“And we know – pretty much – that we have further work to do to develop a relationship of trust with our existing borrowers and with the borrowers of the future, many of whom – rightly or wrongly – see us as the cause of problems rather than the providers of solutions.

“All these three things that we know point us in a single direction – to show our customers that they are genuinely at the heart of our businesses.”