The number of mortgages approved by banks to home buyers soared to a 17-month high in June as the housing market revival stepped up.

Some 37,278 loans worth £5.7 billion were approved for house purchase last month, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) said.

This is the highest figure since January 2012, when the prospect of the ending of a stamp duty concession for first-time buyers prompted a flurry of market activity.

The BBA said approvals for house purchase and remortgaging are up by a third compared with a year ago and various Government schemes are likely to free up more housing chains.

The figures were released as Chancellor George Osborne meets mortgage lenders and the construction industry to flesh out plans for an extension of the Government's flagship Help to Buy scheme.

From next year, Help to Buy will enable more people to buy a home with a deposit as low as 5% as the scheme will underwrite £130bn of mortgage lending with state guarantees.

The initiative comes on top of several other schemes such as Funding for Lending which have already prompted mortgage lenders to slash their rates and increase their "risk appetite".

Lenders, estate agents and property websites have all been reporting a pick-up in recent months as more first-time buyers flood into the market.

The BBA pointed out that, despite the housing market uplift, mortgage lending is still "subdued" overall as people are continuing to make high repayments in the low interest rate environment.