Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk For the first time in 10 years the Bank of England's figures for housing equity withdrawal are negative, meaning people have been reducing their debt on their homes rather than taking cash out. Between April and June, instead of withdrawing money borrowers increased the equity they held in their homes by £2.8bn. This inflow of money is likely to have been driven by rising mortgage costs and falling house prices.  Equity withdrawals have been falling from a peak in the last quarter of 2003, when in the three months between October and December homeowners increased their borrowing by a massive £17.2bn.At the start of that quarter the Bank of England base rate stood at just 3.5% and borrowers were being offered loans below 4% and house prices increased.  The picture has changed since then, and in the first three months of this year the withdrawal figure had fallen to £5.2bn as mortgage costs increased and borrowers grew concerned about house prices. At that point, money from housing withdrawals represented 2.3% of post-tax income, a figure which fell to -1.2% in the second quarter. Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight, said the fall in withdrawals meant homeowners would be reining in their spending.  "Negative housing equity withdrawal adds to the mounting pressure on consumer spending already coming from modest disposable income growth, rising utility bills, elevated food prices, tighter lending conditions, higher mortgage rates, increased debt levels, and tighter and - now - rising unemployment," he said."This reinforces the belief that we are in for an extended period of serious consumer retrenchment."