We've seen another week of lenders battling to get their mortgages into the best buy tables - a far cry from the scene a few months or two ago when deals were being pulled left, right and centre as many mortgage providers seemed to be doing everything they could to stay out of the best buys in order to restrict new business inflows.

The latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed that the mortgage slump continues with lending 27% lower in July compared with 12 months ago. However, total lending was up 5% from June and with mortgage rates now coming down, the situation may improve further in the coming months.

Which providers have cut their rates?
Britain's two biggest lenders appear to be engaged in something of a rate war with Halifax and Abbey aggressively undercutting each other. Halifax has reduced some rates by up to 0.45 percentage points and its two-year tracker at 5.59% is 0.1 percentage point below Abbey's two-year tracker at 5.69%.

However, it is not only Halifax and Abbey that have been slashing rates. Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G), First Direct, Britannia building society and ING Direct are also among the lenders to have reduced some of their rates in recent days.