There was a drop of 14 per cent in second charge lending in March compared to the same time last year, figures from the Finance and Leasing Association show.

There were 2,050 new agreements in made in March, at a value of £93m, itself a 14 per cent drop over the year.

In the 12 months to March, 28,172 agreements were made in total, valued at £1.3bn, a 14 per cent increase in the year for both metrics.

New business volumes in Q1 2020 as a whole increased by 2 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2019, the FLA adds.

FLA head of consumer and mortgage finance Fiona Hoyle says “The disruption caused by the lockdown in March led to falls in second charge mortgage new business of 14 per cent by both value and volume compared with March 2019.

“Lenders are continuing to do all they can to support customers during this challenging period and customers experiencing payment difficulties should contact their lender as soon as possible.”