Yorkshire Building Society underlines commitment to branch network as it delivers 'strong results'

The member-owned mutual a delivered a core operating profit of £246.4m in the six months to June 30, compared with £192.5m in the same period the year before.

Ms Allen said: “I’m delighted that these results – my first at the society - demonstrate the strength and stability of our organisation. Against a backdrop of economic challenges, we’ve further improved the society’s financial strength while delivering real help to our members and customers. Despite inflationary pressures and our continued investment to transform our business for the future increasing our costs, we’ve strengthened profitability, which as a mutual building society with no external shareholders, will be reinvested into the society.”

Ms Allen told The Yorkshire Post that the mutual was “committed to being not just in branch, but in the community”.

She added: “The branch network is really important. Customers tell me how much it means to see a friendly face.”

The mutual has 110 branches and 120 agencies. It also has Citizens Advice advisers based in 42 of its branches who offer free, impartial and confidential advice.

Ms Allen said the Citizens Advice advisers are doing phenomenal work, during a period when many people are struggling. As part of its commitment to local communities, the mutual delivered more than 650 financial education sessions to young people across the UK and surpassed the £1m milestone for its charity partner Age UK. With £4.2bn gross lending, the society helped 23,000 people to own a home with mortgage balances increasing to £45.9bn from £45.2bn at the end of 2022.

Ms Allen added: “After years of historically low savings rates, I’m pleased we’ve been at the forefront of giving back to savers as the rate landscape changed. So far this year we’ve passed on the majority of Bank rate rises to our savings range, launched new loyalty savings accounts for members who have been with us a year or longer, and set rates that were on average 1.04 percentage points higher than the market average. This will go some way to supporting our members as they navigate the current cost-of-living challenges.

“While lending is down on the previous half year, this was expected in the context of the wider market. However, the volume of applications remained high, demonstrating the strength of our mortgage range to help people own a place to call home.

"But we know borrowers are facing unprecedented times, and I want to reassure anyone worried about their ability to repay their mortgage with us that we’ll do everything we can to support them - a commitment we strengthened by signing the Mortgage Charter. We’re here to help and I hope borrowers reach out to let us support them through this difficult period."