Leeds Building Society has cut the rate on its five-year fixed rate Local Authority Mortgage Scheme (LAMS) mortgage by 0.50 percentage points to 4.99%.

It is available up to 95% LTV.

Leeds, the only LAMS provider to offer a five-year fixed rate mortgage, has also launched a three-year fixed rate mortgage at 4.29%, also available up to 95% LTV.

The mutual has seen a year on year increase in the number of its FTBs of over 30%. Since the start of the year, the Society helped 1,716 first-time buyers purchase their first home, compared to 1,312 in the corresponding period in 2012.

In terms of market share, statistics from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show a 20.5% increase in the number of first-time buyer cases during January and February this year. Leeds Building Society’s comparison during January and February 2013 is a 79.4% increase (899 in 2013 compared to 501 in 2012).

The Society’s “A Helping Hand” initiative makes even more 95% mortgages available to those who can afford the mortgage repayments but are currently unable to provide a large deposit.

Normal lending criteria applies, so only those first-time buyers who can comfortably afford to make repayments will benefit, the Leeds said.

10 Local Authorities (Leeds, Warrington, Bristol, Blackpool, Hertfordshire, Watford, Three Rivers, North Hertfordshire, Stevenage and Dacorum) place funds with the UK’s fifth largest building society as security, with Leeds then providing the three and five-year fixed rate mortgages requiring only a 5% deposit.

Kim Rebecchi, sales and marketing director at Leeds Building Society, said: “We have offered mortgages throughout the economic downturn and continue to increase lending, particularly to first-time buyers, through our shared ownership, shared equity and guarantor mortgages.

“Between January and April this year we helped over 1,700 first-time buyers onto the housing ladder, which is an increase of over 30% from a year earlier.”