Housebuilders have hit out at the failure of banks to pass on last week’s shock 1.5% cut in interest rates to potential customers.

By the time Building went to press more than three-quarters of banks had temporarily withdrawn their tracker mortgage offers without replacing them and only regional bank Mansfield had come forward with a new fixed-rate offer.

The lack of available mortgage funding is seen as one of the main reasons for the huge decline in home sales in the past year.

A spokesperson for the Home Builders Federation said it would be “disappointed” if it didn’t see action soon. He said: “The lenders should pass this rate cut on. The amount of money lent by banks has reduced dramatically, so the first thing is restoring the general availability of mortgage finance.”

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