MEMBERS gave their backing to the Skipton Building Society board at the 163rd annual general meeting last night.
An overwhelming proportion of those who voted said yes to each of the resolutions, with almost 95 per cent of voters showing their confidence in Skipton’s Board in electing and re-electing Board members.
Around 99 per cent voted in favour of the annual report and accounts and over 90 per cent in favour of the directors’ remuneration report.
In total just under 70,000 members voted (69,928), compared to 66,992 members voting last year.
Skipton’s new distribution and financial services director Andrew Bottomley shared his plans for how customer service will remain at the forefront of decisions in 2016.
Visitors also heard from non-executive director Robert East about the role and purpose of Skipton’s risk committee and from retiring non-executive director Nimble Thompson, who highlighted key points in the society’s remuneration report.
Members were also able to enjoy the classical delights of the Skipton Building Society Camerata before and after the AGM.
Skipton Group chief executive David Cutter said: "Once again, this year’s AGM was a great opportunity to meet with our members, listen to their feedback, and let them know how we’re continually working to build a better society for them.
“As a mutual, Skipton is owned by, and run for the benefit of its members, both current and future. So in my view, the performance of a building society should be judged on the health of its membership base and whether, over the long run, and provided it is done in a sustainable manner, the rates of growth in its mortgage and savings balances are exceeding the rates of growth in the market as a whole. And on both of these measures Skipton has performed exceptionally well.
“Last year, our membership grew by over 43,000 to 838,000. Our mortgage book grew by 11.9 per cent (compared to the UK market growing by 2.7 per cent), increasing by £1.4 billion, helped largely by a 23 per cent increase in gross mortgage advances of £3.7 billion. And our savings book increased by an identical percentage (11.9 per cent).
“But it isn't just what we do but how we do it that is important to us, believing that it is our behaviours and strong values that will help us succeed in the long run. And last year we leapt into the prestigious top ten for customer experience excellence across major UK brands and being named the UK’s top building society for customer experience. And this year we were ranked 47th in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For.
“As a mutual business, owned by our members, our AGM is the highlight of each year. And once again, we are pleased to see such overwhelming support for all of the resolutions tabled.”