The milestones of the sector’s 250th anniversary and our own 150th offers the opportunity to reflect on how far we have come.

Our purpose of putting home ownership within reach of more people – generation after generation, has remained fundamentally unchanged since we were founded in 1875, but our innovation and investment to support members means we have otherwise grown beyond all recognition. In fact, we are on the cusp of reaching one million members, a milestone I am immensely proud of and something that is wonderful to achieve in our anniversary year.

We continue to commit to our roots and help people save money and get onto the property ladder, just as the mutual sector was set up to do 250 years ago, but the technology and innovation our colleagues, members and broker partners benefit from today would be unrecognisable from the business established in Holbeck all those years ago.

Back then, ordinary people struggled to find lenders and somewhere to call home for the long term. Mutuals answered that call by allowing people in working communities to save and borrow, so they could get the home they wanted and support their families.

In 1875, house prices were 9.3 times higher than average earnings and sadly today not much has changed as the figure still stands at 7.9 times. We know that young borrowers, first time buyers and those on a lower income often face the toughest challenge to prove their ability to repay a mortgage. I’m proud that we continue to demonstrate our support for aspirational homeowners through ideas and products which help make the dream of home ownership a reality for members who may otherwise have been unable to purchase a property.

Our innovative partnership with Experian allows people to potentially improve their credit scores and continues to support aspiring homeowners. Experian Boost uses open banking to assess the last 12 months of payments, such as council tax and subscriptions to streaming services, incorporating them into a free ‘boosted’ credit score.

Through the recent launch of our Income Plus mortgage range, we are able to lend more to first-time buyers by combining a high loan-to-value and loan-to-income ratio with generous affordability modelling. Income Plus enables first time buyers to borrow more and buy the home they want sooner than they may otherwise have been able to.

We continue to champion shared ownership, a tenure that allows people to join the property ladder much sooner than through standard lending. We recently commissioned a new report using market lending data which revealed that shared ownership is more affordable than private renting in the vast majority of areas. What’s more, due to capital repayments and house price increases, shared owners are up to £42k better off than private renters as a result of equity growth. We continue to call on the government to recommit its support for affordable homeownership by building more shared ownership homes.
 
We will do all we can to help but, as our ‘A Place to Call Home’ report shows, despite that hundreds of thousands of people will be unable get onto the housing ladder over the coming years compared to the historic average. Building houses remains an essential way to address that challenge and pushing for wider community consultation on planning developments should be central to delivering new housing targets. We published a new report focused on this issue in 2024. arguing for a fairer system that reduces barriers to home ownership.

It is a privilege to be leading the Society during this important anniversary and I look forward to working closely with our talented colleagues, our valued members, and all of our partners in the mutual sector to help put homeownership within reach of more people – generation after generation.

Find out more:
Read the report 

This article was first published in the Spring edition of Society Matters magazine.