The Nottingham Building Society reveals a positive financial performance for the half year to end of June, achieving growth in mortgage lending numbers in a challenging environment.

The Nottingham shows £13.7m underlying profit before tax (2022: £7.3m), representing an increase of £6.4m.

The society also reports £457.1m in gross new lending (2022: £252.5m), representing an increase of £204.6;  £3.3bn total mortgage assets (2022: £2.9bn), a growth of £0.4bn and  3,630 new mortgage customers (2022: 2,396), an increase of 51.5%

Commenting on the latest figures Nottingham chief executive Sue Hayes says: “The last six months has seen the biggest impact on mortgage holders in 15 years, which is why we were one of the first to sign up to the new “Mortgage Charter” – ensuring our borrowers can access the best solutions for them and helping them through this challenging environment.

“As we look to the future, we will support an even broader range of people to own their own home, and we have introduced a range of lending criteria changes in recent weeks that will help enable this”.

She adds: “In addition our partnership with Generation Home to make property ownership more achievable continues to develop strongly. We look forward to delivering on these goals during the second half of this year.”

Yorkshire Building Society achieved a pre-tax profit of £180.6m in the six months to 30 June which was down on the June 2022 figure of £243.4m however it delivered a core operating profit of £246.4m up on June 2022 at £192.5m.

The Yorkshire also reports a fall in gross lending – £4.2bn compared to £5.3bn in June 2022.

Over the period the society helped 23,000 people to own a home with mortgage balances increasing to £45.9bn (31 December 2022: £45.2bn).

Commenting specifically on the lending side of the business Yorkshire BS chief executive Susan Allen says: “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.

“It’s these challenges that bring our purpose into even sharper focus and lead us to shape our support to help those who need it, both through our products and services, and in our communities across the UK”.

Barclays posted a first-half profit of £4.6bn compared to £3.7bn in 2022.

The bank saw mortgage gross lending flow fall to £12.2bn from £13.9bn for the six months to end of June 2022. UK mortgage balances were up –  £163.6bn compared to  £159.6bn for half year 2022

Average loan to value of new mortgage lending is now 63% from 69% in 2022.

Barclays finance director Anna Cross said borrowers were reacting rationally to rising interest rates with more than a quarter of mortgage customers overpaying on their loans.  Cross explained there was not a huge amount of growth in the market but it was extremely active as borrowers hunted for the cheapest deals around.

Yesterday, Mortgage Strategy reported Lloyds Banking Group’s strong half years numbers, with statutory profits after tax of £2.9bn – up 17% on 2022.

However, overall, loans and advances to customers reduced by £4.2bn (£1.6bn in the second quarter) to £450.7bn, impacted by the first quarter £2.5bn legacy mortgage portfolio exit and net reductions in the open mortgage book.