The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has opted to keep interest rates at 0.5 per cent.

In addition to this, the MPC voted to carry on with its programme of asset purchases and to increase its size by £50 billion.

In response to the decision, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said: "The Bank of England’s decision to extend their programme of quantitative easing suggests that they are still fairly pessimistic about the economic outlook and, in particular, the outlook for bank lending.

"It also suggests that they expect interest rates to stay low for the foreseeable future."

Rics believes that so far the Bank has failed to improve bank lending, which in turn has made it more difficult to obtain mortgage finance.

The Bank said that the financial system remains fragile, despite attempts at intervention from the government, with CPI inflation currently standing at 2.9 per cent.

Despite an increase in enquiries from home buyers, Rics believes these need to be translated into actual sales in order for the housing market to be lifted out of its "depressed state".