Bridging lender Hope Capital is planning to open a London office and recruit another six individuals in the next 12 months covering areas including underwriting, business development and office support.

Hope Capital’s intentions are to more than treble its loan book over the next year capitalising on its ability to lend across the whole of England and Wales, and potentially Scotland in the future.

Jonathan Sealey (pictured), chief executive officer of Hope Capital, said: “We have ambitious plans to grow the business and expand throughout the UK. We intend to open an office in London within the next six months and we are looking to recruit a number of roles both for our head office in Merseyside and in our London office to help further our penetration throughout the country and deal with the increased number of loan cases we are receiving.

“Hope Capital only deals through introducers and is a true principle lender, so it means that we can be completely flexible and extremely fair about the loans that we complete without the need to go to an external credit committee.

“Our main fundamentals will remain the same during the planned expansion into the future, however we will be looking to increase our maximum loan, which currently stands at £1.5m.”