The CML said a £300bn [US$478.3bn] funding gap – the difference between what property buyers wanted to borrow and the funds available to lenders – would open up when existing government support schemes expired in 2014. “The collapse of wholesale funding markets has left a £300bn gap in mortgage funding,” the CML said. “That gap has been filled temporarily by government funds through the special liquidity scheme and the credit guarantee scheme. By 2014, however, both of these schemes will have expired. Hanging over the mortgage market therefore is a major uncertainty about how lenders will be able to refinance this £300bn over time. “Unless there is a policy approach intended to encourage the development of wholesale funding, we are likely to see a long-term decline in choice for UK mortgage customers.”