Total mortgage completions for the year were up 3% on 2019, which reflects the market pause in April and May offset by a particularly strong performance in the last three months of 2020, when total volumes for The Openwork Partnership were up 30% year-on-year.

John Cupis, managing director, mortgages and protection, at The Openwork Partnership, said: “It is testament to the excellent service and reputation of our mortgage advisers that we were able to grow in a turbulent 2020.

“Our ability to continue to recruit new advisers last year and focus on services for advisers and their clients ensured that once the housing market was allowed to open, we were ideally positioned to meet the pent-up demand.

“Our new adviser recruitment pipeline into 2021 remains very strong and, coupled with the stamp duty benefit extension, we are looking forward to another good year.”

Openwork added that it believes that the launch of the government’s Mortgage Guarantee Scheme next month, which aims to increase the supply of 95% loan-to-value (LTV) loans from mortgage companies, plus the continuation of the stamp duty holiday should maintain confidence in the housing market.

The Openwork Partnership has more than 4,200 financial advisers across the UK and operates as a directly authorised, multi-panel distribution network.