My alarm goes off at…

…it doesn’t. I’ve always been quite good at waking up.

Usually I come to life at about 7.30am. I say ‘come to life’, but that doesn’t actually happen until I’ve had my first coffee.

My current coffee is a Kenyan called Boma Peaberry, which comes from a roaster about five minutes from the office.

Challenges of working from home have been…

…few and far between. We quickly adapted to home working.

I think challenges that could have arisen, such as not having as much team spirit, have been mitigated a lot by video calls. I’ve never been so grateful to have a good Wi-Fi connection.

One thing I have missed is the ability to just go over to people’s desks to ask them questions; although in fairness I’ve probably benefited from people not coming over to mine to ask me questions!

It’s not every job where you can say you’ve helped people’s dreams come true, but this is definitely one of them

I’ve enjoyed not having to commute. I work in our head office in Leeds but live in Halifax and motorcycle to work. Before the pandemic, on many mornings I’d have been sitting at my desk like a drowned rat, whereas now I can stay dry no matter what happens outside.

The main purpose of my job is…

…developing our mortgage product range and lending criteria, with a particular focus on affordable housing — including schemes such as Shared Ownership, Help to Buy and First Homes — to ensure support for the customers who need it most.

I’m the society’s lead on industry working groups around affordable housing, so I work closely with our intermediary and communications teams to update brokers and consumers on society and market developments, and what these mean for them.

I have missed the ability to just go over to people’s desks to ask them questions

A common misconception about my role is…

…that pricing is just pricing up and pricing down. There’s more nuance to it than that!

We have a plan for lending that we aim for, but price is only one part of it. We try to take into account our service levels, how our criteria are positioned and how much demand there is in the market.

I’d definitely say that pricing is more art than science. In all the years I’ve done it, I’ve never found a foolproof, mechanistic way to approach it. If I had, I’m certain I’d have fewer wrinkles around my eyes.

I’m really proud of my job, and of the fact I end each day knowing that what I’ve done will have made a difference to people’s lives

My typical day entails…

…checking every morning to see what applications we had the day before, and trying to gain an understanding of what activity in the market looked like to determine whether we need to make any quick changes to our range in response.

Throughout the day I’ll be answering questions from business development managers and brokers as to whether we’ll lend on particular schemes. There are a lot of affordable housing schemes and it can be difficult to be certain which lenders will support them, but I like to think we take a common-sense approach.

I’ll also work on wider strategic pieces; things like new government schemes. I always keep both Outlook and Excel open to ask/answer questions and do analysis quickly.

My favourite work memory is…

…all the social events. We’re a really close-knit team and all have a good time with each other.

We have a plan for lending that we aim for, but price is only one part of it

A particular highlight is a gin tasting, of which I can definitively remember only half the night!

There’s probably some catching-up to do now the world is opening up again.

A perk of the job is…

…selling the benefits of affordable housing to anyone who’ll listen. I’m really proud of my job, and of the fact I end each day knowing that what I’ve done will have made a difference to people’s lives.

There are a lot of affordable housing schemes but I like to think we take a common-sense approach

I said to someone the other day that it’s not every job where you can really say you’ve helped people’s dreams come true, but this is definitely one of them.

To unwind after work, I…

…drink a good Malbec, usually from Argentina. If I can pair that with a curry and new indie music on vinyl, I’m a very happy man.