Nonetheless, LIBOR continues to loiter stubborn and high in relation to the Base rate, symbolic of a fallen system where banks lack the confidence to step out of their houses to trade with each other.

Katie Tucker, spokesperson for Charcol, said: “The connection between Base Rate and LIBOR – the rate at which lenders borrow money – has become elastic, and a pull on one end provides no effect on the other. Previous short-term cash injections have merely brought temporary aid; what the Government needs to do is restore the inter-bank lending and resurrect the confidence of investors in the mortgage backed securities.

“The new market will inevitably be a more robustly risk-assessed and risk-priced version of its former self. This means that borrowing at high loan-to values or with credit problems will never be as cheap as in the last two years; but the property market should regain health.

“Mortgage deals can’t be expected to live for more than four days now, but brokers receive a few hours advance notice of the product closures, and can secure money on the rate a client may have been quoted for, before the deal is re-priced upwards. That heads up has been the saving grace of many remortgagors this week.”