The Yorkshire Building Society has announced its half-yearly 2021 results this morning, with profit before tax more than doubling to £147.7m.

Chief Executive Mike Regnier said the "hard work, commitment and resilience" of his staff had helped them make such a strong start, with more than 41,000 residential mortgages provided, including a record 9,931 for first-time buyers.

He said: “As an organisation, we want to make a difference to our members’ lives and one of the highlights of our results is that we’ve helped 10,000 first-time buyers to become homeowners.

"This is the largest number of people we’ve helped on to the housing ladder in six months of any year. We’ll continue to support people to buy homes throughout the rest of the year and beyond. The housing and mortgage markets have been strong in the first six months of 2021 and remain positive as we enter the economic recovery period.

“This has enabled us to end the first half of the year with good profit levels and strong capital and liquidity positions. We have demonstrated efficiency through growing the Society in terms of both mortgage and savings balances whilst maintaining costs at a level similar to last year.

“These results have only been possible because of the hard work, commitment and resilience of our colleagues. They have supported our customers and each other in an exemplary way throughout this difficult period. I’m incredibly proud of, and grateful to, every one of them."

Among the other highlights, mortgage balances increased by £2.2bn to £41bn and saving balances increased by £1.8bn to £35.2bn.

 

Mr Regnier said the region would continue to benefit from the society's success:  “The economic impact of the pandemic brought into focus the very real and serious difficulties many people are facing around financial wellbeing, employment and skills. In response, we have pledged an additional £1.8m to our social purpose programmes over the next two years.

"Our partnerships with Age UK, Citizens Advice and Good Things Foundation, along with our renewed commitment to our flagship financial education scheme Money Minds, aim to make a real difference to tens of thousands of people.”