SKIPTON Building Society continues in "robust health", its half year results for the period up to June 30 have revealed.

The society has also received an upgrade from two ratings agencies and made its debut in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For.

And this year it has continued to expand its direct service team, setting on 60 new people in the department to see it grow to 243 - most staff living within ten miles of the head office in Skipton.

Group profits before tax were £72.1 million and included a charge for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme levy of £6.8 million.

The number of group residential mortgages in arrears by three months or more has fallen further to one per cent.

David Cutter, Skipton’s Group chief executive, said: “I’m delighted to report that Skipton has had another strong start to the year.

"It is very pleasing to see a continued growth in our membership, and that our gross mortgage lending increased by nearly a third, with continued strong growth in both mortgage and savings balances, and further upgrades from two ratings agencies.

"The society is in robust health and we are on course to deliver another strong and balanced performance for the full year.

“It remains a very difficult time for savers, with low interest rates and Bank Base Rate having remained at 0.5 per cent for over six years.

"However, over these past six months we’ve continued to support both our savings and borrowing members with a suite of competitive and award-winning products and the strong growth in savings and mortgage balances is testament to the society’s relative competitiveness.”

The society helped 11,852 homeowners during the six month period to purchase or remortgage their properties, including 2,038 first time buyers – 182 of those through the society's participation in the Government’s Help to Buy equity loan scheme.

The society paid an average savings rate of 1.70 per cent, over three times the Bank Base Rate.

In April, it launched a unique online community, retiresavvy.co.uk, to encourage and empower people to take control of their own financial futures.

“It’s been a strong start to the year for Skipton Building Society and we will build on this further, investing back into the business to ensure we continue to serve our members for their lives ahead," said Mr Cutter.