The number of new mortgage approvals for house purchases slipped again in February, according to the latest data from the British Bankers' Association.

According to the BBA there were 42,613 such loans made by high street banks in the month, down from a post-Brexit referendum peak of 44,142 in January.

The aggregate value of the loans fell from £8.22bn to £7.96bn.

“The February slowdown in mortgage approvals for house purchases fuels our belief that the housing market will come under increasing pressure over the coming months,” said Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight.

The BBA also reported that the rate of consumer credit growth declined slightly in February to 6.6 per cent, down from 6.7 per cent the previous month.

The growth rate peaked at 7.2 per cent in October 2016.

The aggregate household savings ratio, excluding pension contributions, is estimated by the Office for Budget Responsibility to have turned negative in the final quarter of last year, hitting its lowest levels since the global financial crisis.

The OBR stressed that “there are limits to the extent to which consumption growth can be financed by further reductions in saving”.

House prices have continued to rise since the referendum vote, Average prices rose at an annual rate of 6.2 per cent in January according to the latest report from the Office for National Statistics this week.

This was up from a rate of 5.7 per cent in the year to December, although down from a peak of 9.4 per cent in the month of the referendum.

Robust consumer spending has kept the economy growing relatively strongly since last June's referendum, despite widespread expectations of a recession.

But most analysts expect spiking price inflation, resulting from the 13 per cent sterling's slump since the Brexit vote, to erode consumer spending power this year and slow the economy's expansion.