Leeds Building Society on course for one million members after wooing new savers and mortgage holders

The organisation ended the year with 919,000 members – a 10 per cent increase on 2022’s previous record high of 839,000.

Chief executive Richard Fearon told The Yorkshire Post the business will continue to expand during 2024 and beyond.

“We are going to grow strongly so we will pass one million at some point,” he said,

"I couldn’t predict exactly when that will be because it is a function of the market and what the Bank of England chooses to do. But what I can tell you is we outperformed our plan last year in terms of growth and numbers and we were delighted with that.

"But to bring in those record customer volumes at the same time as having record customer satisfaction is really the thing we are pleased with. Sometimes when you are growing so fast service can suffer and that did not happen at all.”

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The company’s profit before tax in 2023 was £181.5m – 17 per cent down on the record £220.5m recorded in 2022.

Gross mortgage lending was down 12 per cent from £5bn to £4.4bn – but LBS’s share of the market increased two per cent from 1.6 per cent.

Mr Fearon said the figures were representative of wider challenges for the housing market as interest rates rose.

"Our market share was up. Even though our lending was down slightly, the market was down a lot more.

"Lot of other lenders saw lending down by far more so we are really pleased we have increased our market share.

"This year, the mortgage market has started with a bang. In January we had our biggest month ever in 149 years for mortgage applications.”

More than half of LBS’s new mortgage lending in 2023 was to first-time buyers. It followed the mutual announcing in 2022 it was stopping lending on second homes and this week has said it will trial a ban on new loans for holiday homes in tourism hotspots in North Yorkshire and North Norfolk as part of its ongoing efforts to support aspiring homeowners.

Mr Fearon called on both the Conservatives and Labour to set out a “long-term joined-up plan” for more housebuilding in their General Election manifestos.

"It is one of the very hardest times to afford a home at the moment since we were founded back in 1875. We are short of homes as a country.”

LBS’s growth in saver numbers was driven in part by it paying an average interest rate 0.59 per cent above the market average. Its savings balance now stands at £20.8bn – 19 per cent higher than the year before.

Mr Fearon said: “Lots of the big banks have seen reductions in their savings balances. Building societies are paying better rates and we are seeing these record inflows.”