The Leeds Building Society has reported an increase in pre-tax profits of 10% to £18 million for the first six months of the year. However, mortgage arrears were up slightly.

The UK’s fifth largest building society said its new mortgage lending totalled £400 million for the first half of 2010, and that it was still on track to reach its target of £1 billion in new lending for the year.

Leeds’ chief executive, Ian Ward , said the mutual had achieved a strong financial performance for the first half of the year. He said: “Total membership increased to almost 690