Hinckley & Rugby Building Society more than doubled its mortgage advances last year.

The mutual said it also started 2012 with a pipeline of mortgage business 87% higher than a year ago.

Announcing its annual results for the year to 30 November 2011, Hinckley & Rugby said mortgage advances totalled £77 million, up from £35 million in the previous 12 months – a rise of 120%.

Mortgage applications nearly doubled, up from £48 million in 2010 to £90 million in the past year. That rise meant the pipeline of business carried forward into 2012 was £28 million, compared to £15 million a year before.

Chris White, Hinckley & Rugby’s chief executive, said the society remained profitable against a backdrop of heightened tension in financial funding markets and a squeeze in household incomes and consumer spending.

He said: “These factors affecting the supply of money and people’s appetite for taking major financial decisions such as house purchase meant activity in the wider mortgage market has been very subdued.