The Skipton Building Society has reported that its overall gross residential mortgage lending for 2016 of £4.0bn is the highest in the group’s history, with a total of 23,666 mortgages or remortgages completed, and the overall mortgage book growing by £1.3bn to £15.5bn.

By the end of 2016, the Society helped 23,666 homeowners to purchase or remortgage their properties, up from 23,094 in 2015. This included 4,327 first time buyers (3,847 in 2015) and 1,292 (618 in 2015) through participation in the Help to Buy equity loan scheme.

Buy-to-let mortgages accounted for £588.0m or 14.8% of the group’s gross lending during the year, up from £467.2m or 12.7% in 2015.

The group’s mortgage book grew by £1.3bn to £15.5bn, an annual growth rate of 9.1%. During the year, the group’s net residential UK mortgage lending accounted for 3.5% of the growth in the UK residential mortgage market, compared to the Skipton’s 1.1% share of UK residential mortgage balances.

The group’s total assets rose to £19.0bn, an increase of 8.6% over 2015. Total group profit before tax increased by 15.0% to £168.9m (from £146.9m in 2015), while underlying group pre-tax profit fell by 1.2% to £151.5m (2015: £153.3m).

Group profit after tax increased by 14.5% to £129.8m.

David Cutter (pictured), the Skipton’s group chief executive, said: “Looking after people’s savings and enabling home ownership is at the very heart of what the Society does as a mutual building society. I firmly believe that our long term focus of being there to help people plan for their life ahead is resonating with our members.

“Being a ‘trusted helper’, coupled with excellent customer service, has led to the society delivering a strong performance in 2016 achieving a net customer satisfaction rating of 90%, and an employee engagement score of 90%. Group profit after tax increased by 14.5% to £129.8m and, being a mutual, this money is held in reserves and available to be reinvested back into the business, not paid out to shareholders.”