Drop in mortgage approvals shows Brown's recession policies aren't working

George Osborne has stressed Gordon Brown's recession policies aren't working as new figures show mortgage approvals are at a nine-year low.

The latest statistics from the Bank of England revealed that in November 2008 mortgage approvals dropped to 27,000, the lowest figure since January 1999.

George, the Shadow Chancellor, said we must face the facts about the failure of Labour's economic policies:

"First we discovered that there were fewer shoppers in December despite the VAT cut; now we discover house prices are falling sharply and mortgage approvals at a record low despite the stamp duty holiday introduced three months ago."

"The new year shows that Gordon Brown's policies are not working and the recession is getting worse not better. That is because an economic recovery depends on confidence in the future, and people do not have that confidence while we have a Labour Government in power bankrupting the country."