The Bath Building Society Group has reported increase in its mortgage book in 2016 to a record high of £231.2m.

This compares to £226.9m for the previous year.

Meanwhile, gross mortgage lending totalled £43.6m last year, compared to £40.9m in 2015.

The group’s assets rose by 2.2% to £298.9m, from £292.6m on the previous year and it showed an 11.6% increase in its reserves from £26.8m to £29.9m year on year.

Dick Jenkins, the Bath’s chief executive, said: “The Society has had another strong year in which it has built its reserves to become one of the best capitalised in the Building Society world, and increased its long term resilience as a  result. Whilst the immediate impacts of Brexit are fairly minor for a business trading solely in the UK, we remain concerned about the secondary impacts on the economy and care will need to be taken with the Great Repeal Bill to ensure that the potential benefits of leaving the EU can be realised.

“The ultra-low interest rate cycle looks likely to last for even longer than most of us anticipated some years ago, and we have consequently remained focussed on helping our existing savers in preference to chasing new customers.

“We are pleased to have grown our mortgage book in the face of huge competition through the development of our Rent-a-Room mortgage. We are looking forward to launching a new mortgage targeting retired customers in the coming weeks through our innovative approach to lending to this group. We continue to be committed to helping people in Bath and further afield to buy homes.”