Lloyds Banking Group has reported underlying profit increased 22% to £1.8 billion in the first quarter of 2014.

The bank, which is still partly owned by the taxpayer, lent £2.6 billion to first-time homebuyers in first quarter, including £342 million through Help to Buy. Gross new mortgage lending was £9.8 billion.

Mortgage lending increased by £0.1 billion, with a £0.8 billion increase in the first quarter in books open to new business being partly offset by a reduction of £0.7 billion in specialist books. Year-on-year growth in books open to new business was 2%.

It saw SME loan growth of 5% in last 12 months with approximately 29,000 start-ups supported in first quarter.

Meanwhile, there was UK consumer finance loan growth of 9% in last 12 months.

António Horta-Osório, group chief executive, said: “We made good progress in the first quarter benefiting from our simple, low risk, UK focused retail and commercial banking business model.

“We provided further support to the UK economic recovery while delivering better underlying profitability and improved returns for shareholders from a stronger balance sheet. The launch of our Helping Britain Prosper Plan underlines our commitment to creating sustainable prosperity for our customers and growth in the UK economy.

“Our strong performance enabled the UK government to further reduce its stake, returning an additional £4.2 billion of taxpayers’ money in the first quarter.”