Building society in Peterborough funds growth in home buying

The society, which employs 250 people at Lynch Wood, Peterborough, says its £4 billion of lending to June 30 financed 8,393 home purchases - up from 7,713 last year.

But the Society also revealed its pre-tax profits over the first six months fell to £76.5 million compared to £88.6 million last year.

84,529 new accounts were opened with savings balances up to £30.3 billion compared to £29.6 billion in 2018.

Mike Regnier, chief executive, said: “The Society has made a strong start to 2019. We have continued to focus on our core purpose of helping people to secure and maintain a place they call home, to build financial resilience and to do so in a way that maintains our long-term financial stability.”

He added: “We’ve been doing this for 150 years, but it’s particularly important at a time when many people are facing very real challenges such as housing affordability, a decade of low interest rates in the savings market and passing wealth between generations.

“Our robust profits and strong financial health are a reflection of our disciplined approach, which enables us to deliver the excellent service our members rightly expect, as well as the flexible, competitive products which enable our members achieve their financial goals.

“We have continued to lower our costs to ensure we’re giving members good value for money, resulting in a reduction in our underlying management expenditure.

“We’ll continue to focus on enhancing our digital capabilities.

“We’re improving the digital services we offer members as well as putting ourselves in a good position to ensure we’re able to maximise the opportunities offered by advances in technology, including Open Banking.”

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