Mortgage lenders have drawn up a plan to help kick-start the mortgage market amid falling house prices and a squeeze on the availability of home loans.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) want to free up UK banks and building societies to offer new home loans.

It wants the Bank of England to guarantee a market in mortgage-backed securities and covered bonds. This would encourage investment in the market for these products, pushing funds back into mortgage lending. The CML said that the biggest issue in the mortgage market was the lack of available funding to support new mortgage lending. This has led to the number of mortgage deals on the market being squeezed and the cost of these loans rising.

The lenders' body wants the Bank to essentially offer a form of secured lending. This would persuade investors to buy mortgage-backed securities - something that has dried up during the credit crunch. The scheme could be set up quickly and would act as a catalyst to restore market confidence, the CML said.

Unlike the Bank of England's Special Liquidity Scheme - which allowed banks to swap £50bn of mortgages for government bonds - it would cover new mortgages and investors would still take the credit risk. "A year into the credit crunch, there is no merit at all in waiting until the autumn before taking steps that will help the housing market to remain more resilient," said CML director general Michael Coogan.

But speed is of the essence. The CML was disappointed by speculation this week that the Crosby review of housing finance was unlikely to offer policy recommendations in its interim report. The CML firmly believes that with quick and decisive implementation of the mortgage market funding proposal, the Government could mitigate the difficulties that households and the housing market will otherwise face, as well as helping to restore greater confidence to the financial system as a whole.