MORTGAGE and savings business both grew by around 12 per cent at Skipton Building Society, which also attracted a record number of customers last year.

The UK's fourth largest building society boosted gross mortgage lending by 23 per cent from £3 billion to £3.7 billion in the year to December 31. The mutual loaned to more than 23,000 homebuyers and remortgage customers, including more than 3,800 first time buyers.

Skipton’s mortgage book expanded by 11.9 per cent to £14.2 billion, while savings balances grew at a similar rate grew to £12.8 billion, an increase of £1.4 billion.

Group pre-tax profits were down from £180.6 million in 2014 to £146.9 million due to the loss of earning from discontinued operations. Underlying pre-tax profit from continuing operations rose by 2.1per cent to £153.3 million.

Skipton, which was named the top building society and seventh best out of 272 UK brands in a national survey, increased Society customer numbers by 43,348 to a record 838,087.

David Cutter, group chief executive, said: “The results show that 2015 was another year of strong performance and further demonstrated that our 162-year-old core purpose of delivering consistent value to our members is still as relevant today as it was when we were founded.

"In 2015 we enabled more people to save for their future and buy their own home than we ever have before.

“The level of service experienced by our members is important to us. One of our achievements that we are most proud of over the past 12 months was leaping into the prestigious ‘top ten’ for customer experience excellence across major UK brands and being named the UK’s top building society for customer experience.

“The early part of 2015 saw net savings outflows, and was impacted by the market distortion created by NS&I’s pensioner bonds. However, strong growth in retail savings resumed throughout the remainder of the year, such that savings balances have increased by 36 per cent over the last three years.”

Meanwhile, Leeds Building Society, achieved its fifth consecutive year of growth in 2015 with record mortgage completions of £3.1 billion.

Pre-tax profits also reached a record of £108.5 million against £69.4 million in 2014.

Peter Hill, chief executive, said: "I'm proud to report another excellent set of results after a successful 12 months, building on the sustained growth in recent years.As we celebrated our 140th anniversary in 2015, we helped more people than ever before to save for the future and to have the homes they want."

LBS has local branches in Bradford, Yeadon and Horsforth.