Legal & General Network has called for more lenders to take a flexible approach to underwriting, arguing the self-employed and complex prime mortgage markets are currently under-served.

Martyn Smith, had of mortgage products at Legal & General said there has perhaps been an over-reliance and tightening on credit-scoring by large lenders.

He added: “Our recent launch of a mortgage with no credit-score with the Hanley Economic Building Society showed that there is another way. We are also seeing a more flexible and refreshing approach from some of the new lenders coming to the market.