After days of scouring the market for the best deal, Jane Green had finally settled on a remortgage offer. She had scheduled an appointment with her mortgage broker and was ready to sign up to a competitively priced two-year tracker loan with Scottish Widows Bank.

But shortly before the meeting, her broker called to say the deal they had agreed on earlier that day was no longer available. It had been withdrawn by Scottish Widows with little more than an hour’s notice.