Competition in the buy-to-let mortgage market has been fuelled as the Co-operative Bank’s broker lender promised to up lending in the sector by a third this year.

Platform, the intermediary lender of the Co-operative Bank, said it would lend £600 million in buy-to-let loans in 2012, as uncertainty in the wider housing market was fuelling rental demand.

Lee Gladwell, business development director at Platform, said: “Uncertainty around the economy, employment and house prices is continuing to fuel demand for the rental market and creating opportunities for landlords and brokers.”

Property website Rightmove said there were three times more buy-to-let mortgage products available than two years ago, as the market has boomed due to “trapped renters” – those who would like to buy their own home but cannot afford to.

Mortgage lending picked up in November as the number of homeowners taking up fixed-rate deals hit the highest level in more than two years.

The Council for Mortgage Lenders said the number of house purchase loans increased year-on-year for only the second time in 2011 by three per cent to 47,000.

Meanwhile the Co-operative Group, headed by Bradford-born group chief executive Peter Marks, is to create 340 jobs at its new £22 million food distribution depot in north Derbyshire.