Sir Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, believes economic growth is on its way and activity will pick up in the next quarter.

In an interview with Channel 4 News Mervyn said growth would depend on the Eurozone crisis, but he believes the next quarter will post growth and a continued slow recovery.

However, he did say: "After a banking crisis one can't expect to get back to normal and I fear it will take a long time."

The UK recession entered into a double-dip recession after the first quarter of this year.

Mervyn also commented on the banking system: “What we have to do is straightforward, we have to change way banks finance themselves.

"They don't get money from shareholders in the same way as businesses do, they fund themselves by borrowings. It is important we impose limits on how much banks can fund themselves through such borrowings."