Britain's major banks approved 45,000 loans for home purchase in November, up from 44,000 in October, and net mortgage lending also picked up, the Bank of England's latest Trends in Lending survey showed yesterday. Despite the modest improvement in mortgage approvals, the figures still point to sluggish activity in the housing market and are well below their historic levels. The Bank of England said net mortgage lending rose to 1.3 billion pounds last month from 1.1 billion pounds in October, but is still one of the lowest readings in the last two years. Gross mortgage lending fell 10 percent on the year to 11.1 billion pounds in November. This was the lowest figure for a month of November since 2000, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. However, the CML said last year's figure may have been elevated by a tax concession for home purchases that expired at the end of 2009. The CML expects gross mortgage lending in 2011 will come in at around 135 billion pounds, a similar level to this year.