Fears that interest rates will be put up again before the end of the year led to increasing numbers of UK homeowners remortgaging during July, a new report has revealed.

In spite of the five rises in interest rates introduced by the Bank of England over the past year, lending in July rose by £5.7 billion, an increase from the previous month's rise of £5.4 billion, according to the latest figures released by the British Bankers' Association (BBA).

The figures support those recently released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), which reported that gross lending reached £34.4 billion in July, a record for that month.

Commenting on the figures, David Dooks, director of statistics at the BBA, said: "This resilience shows the popularity of home ownership and also reflects more remortgaging activity."

However, the Building Societies Association recently stated that approvals for mortgages in the UK totalled £3.6 billion in July, a decline of £4.9 billion on the previous month's total.