Putting customers at the heart of policy will help ensure a "healthy, sustainable and thriving housing market", Nigel Terrington, chairman of the Council of Mortgage Lenders said at CML's annual lunch.<br> <br> Terrington stated that more certainty, greater clarity and longer term objectives would help the mortgage market nurse itself back to health. And understanding what drives consumers would pave the way for a stronger lending community.<br> <br> He commented: "We, as an industry, and the government, need to do more to understand the motives and actions of our customers and citizens respectively." This will help the development of policies. "It may challenge those traditional views of lenders' unwillingness to lend, rather than a consumer's unwillingness to borrow, always being the problem." CML's latest data shows that in March, the number of first time buyers increased by 20% against February.