Published: 1 August 2024
Our latest set of financial results have been published. They show that we’re breaking records for both savings and mortgages - putting more money in your pocket, and helping more people achieve their dream of owning a home.
We continue to invest in making the experience better for members – from making improvements online to growing our branch network. Because we know what matters to you.
- 17,500 homes bought with us, including 7,800 first time buyers
- Society membership grew to a record high of 945,300
- We generated the equivalent of £135m1 benefit for our savers through our higher than average savings rates
- Underlying profit levels remain high at £86.4m2 as we invest in digital and branch services
Check out our round-up or read the full financial report.
Helping people into homes
Society records tumbled during the first half of the year, which included our busiest-ever day for mortgage completions. In total we helped 17,500 more people buy the home they wanted, including 7,800 first time buyers. We’re lending more money than ever to help people have a place to call home. And, because we’re so committed to helping people become homeowners, we’re incredibly proud that thousands of first time buyers chose us for this huge moment in their lives.
Standing by our savers
We’re a mutual. This means we don’t have shareholders, so our decisions are made in your best interest. We were delighted to welcome 47,500 new savers in the first half of 2024. And we believe in making sure our members get the best value for their savings that we can offer.
By providing an average savings rate of 3.73% - up on the market average of 3.07%1 - we generated the equivalent of £135m in annual benefit for members. Saving can be hard, so we believe it’s important that you see the benefits of saving with us.
Our savings members are vital to our existence, to help us fulfil our purpose of making home ownership a reality for more people. By saving with us, you’re helping more people onto the housing ladder. And nearly 500 members took their first steps towards home ownership, as they opened our Home Deposit Saver account, designed to give them a lift onto the property ladder.
Future proofing our finances
It’s important to feel peace of mind in where you put your money in an uncertain economic landscape. That’s why we were pleased to make £86.4m underlying profit2 in the first half of 2024, a significant increase compared to the second half of last year.
But we don’t just sit back on those profit levels, we reinvest into areas we know matter to our members. We’re opening a brand-new branch in Solihull later this year, because we know how important our branch network is to so many of our members.
While we’re committed to branches, we also know that some of you prefer to use our online services. That’s why we’re working on transforming our digital platforms to ensure they’re at the standards you expect and deserve.
Keeping colleagues happy – so they do their best for you
Everything we do is with our members in mind. Which is why we’re pleased that our customer satisfaction levels remain high3. But we know that without engaged and committed colleagues we wouldn’t be able to give you the service you expect. So, it’s great that our colleague engagement scores continue to improve, keeping us within the top 25% of the financial services sector.
Building brighter tomorrows for Barnardo’s
We’ve now launched our new three-year partnership with Barnardo’s, the UK’s largest children’s charity. We’re aiming to raise £300,000 by 2027 to help build brighter futures for care-experienced young people. Because we know the value of having somewhere to call home.
This follows our four-year partnership with Dementia UK which ended in April. We’re amazed to say that the kindness of colleagues and members meant we smashed our target of £500k as we raised over £1m for this worthy cause.
A word from our CEO
Our CEO Richard Fearon had this to say about our 2024 half year performance:
“I’m delighted with our record-breaking start to 2024 and our ability to support borrowers and savers so effectively over the past six months.
“We have continued to put homeownership within reach of more people, generation after generation, by helping 7,800 new first-time buyers take their first steps onto the property ladder whilst also supporting existing members and investing in the future of our Society.
“As a mutual we are only ever as strong as the relationship we hold with our members, and we have achieved some significant milestones that reflect their enduring loyalty.
“I’m confident we’re in a great position to invest in the future given our record growth in lending, savings balances and overall membership.
“I am delighted that we’ll be opening a new high street branch in Solihull in the coming months to expand our national branch network and allow us to reach more people. This complements the great strides we have made in improving our digital offering over recent years.
“We are on the verge of entering our 150th year as a building society. We are well placed over the rest of 2024 and into our next 150 years and beyond to continue making homeownership a reality for more people and rewarding savers for the trust they put in us.”
1The Society paid an average of 3.73% to our savers compared to the Rest of Market average of 3.07%, which equates to an annual benefit to our savers of £135m. Source: CACI’s CSDB, Stock, June 2023 to May 2024, latest data available. CACI is an independent company that provides financial benchmarking data of the retail cash savings market.
2Underlying profit before tax excludes exceptional items.
3Overall customer satisfaction in a survey of 1,761 members from January to June 2024.
