This joint update follows the 2025 report - Audit for Growth: Proportionality in Audit and Reporting - which set out a practical case for a more proportionate audit and reporting framework, identifying reforms that would maintain investor and consumer confidence while reducing unnecessary burdens on smaller and less complex organisations.
 

This update sets out how, since the 2025 publication:

• audit and reporting costs continue to rise
• competitive pressures in the audit market remain limited
• the burden continues to fall disproportionately on smaller mutual organisations.

The report explores the impact on the building society sector:

• audit fees have increased over eight times faster than inflation since 2018
• audit fee increased to 11% of profit before tax in 2025 from 8% in 2024
• the audit-fee burden for micro societies (under £500m assets) was over 9 times higher relative to assets than for large societies (over £10bn assets) in 2025

Read the update here