Leeds Building Society announces 2026 Interim Financial Results

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Leeds Building Society has delivered a solid performance in the first half of 2026, supporting its members whilst maintaining financial strength and a disciplined attitude to long-term growth. As a mutual with a strong balance sheet, the Society is focused on investing for the future and enhancing member value.

The UK’s fifth largest building society continues to help people to have a place to call home and build financial resilience as savings balances increased to £26.4 billion and gross mortgage lending remained strong at £2.0 billion.

2026 H1 key highlights:

  • Attracting new members to the Society: supporting 13,000 people onto and up the housing ladder in the first half of the year (H1 2025: 19,400), almost 50% of whom (6,450) were first-time buyers (H1 2025: 9,600). Alongside this, a total of 33,000 new savings members joined the Society in the first half of the year (H1 2025: 55,000)
  • Helping savers make the most of their money: generating an additional £88.5 million in interest for our members during the first five months of 2026, as a result of paying rates 0.83% above the market average1 (H1 2025: £88.8m in interest, 0.87% above the market average)
  • Robust lending performance: gross mortgage lending of £2.0 billion (H1 2025: £2.6 billion)
  • Continued financial strength, enabling investment: achieving a profit before tax of £70.7 million, in a significant transformation build year for the Society, in line with growth plans and expectations (H1 2025: £104.4 million)
  • Supporting communities across the UK: in the first half of the year, we have donated £590,670 to charities that align with our purpose, through a combination of direct giving, colleague fundraising, match funding and volunteering incentives.

Annette Barnes, Leeds Building Society’s Chief Executive Officer, said:

“I’m proud of all that we have achieved as a Society in the first half of 2026, as we delivered a performance in line with expectations.

“Our rate of growth in the first half of 2026 reflects the deliberate investment choices we have made, including the multi-year modernisation of our core technology platform, which is now in the build phase. We will continue to invest for the future, in line with our plan to enhance member value and set us up for continued success over the long-term.

“Supporting people into homes is central to everything we do, and in the first half of 2026 we helped 13,000 people onto and up the housing ladder, almost half of whom were first-time buyers. I’m delighted that we continued to lend responsibly and launch innovative products to meet members’ needs.

“Looking ahead we see significant opportunity, despite economic uncertainty. Our financial strength and focused strategy mean that we are well positioned not only to navigate change, but to pursue opportunities that strengthen the Society and will create lasting value for members for generations to come.”

Maintained robust financial performance in line with expectations

  • The Society maintained total regulatory capital comfortably above regulatory requirements at £1.8 billion (31 December 2025 £1.7 billion).
  • Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio was 24.6% at 30 June 2026 (H1 2025: 25.8%; 31 December 2025: 25.5%).
  • The cost to income ratio, after adjusting for transformation costs, is 50.6% (H1 2025: 44.0%; 31 December 2025: 46.1%). The Society continues to operate in a value-conscious way whilst investing into its muti-year technology transformation programme, which will support the needs of members and strengthen long-term resilience.
  • The Society maintained low arrears levels at 0.57% (H1 2025: 0.56%; 31 December 2025: 0.57%), a testament to the hard work of its teams to support borrowers facing financial difficulty.

Supporting members and intermediary partners

  • New Start mortgage range launched, designed to reduce the affordability barriers faced by first-time buyers by combining a high loan-to-value with competitive income requirements, allowing borrowers to responsibly access loans worth up to five times their income.
  • Expanded Income Plus range to help members move up the property ladder, allowing both first-time buyers and next steppers to access six times loan to income, if they have a minimum income of £75,000, subject to responsible lending assessments.
  • Broker Net Promoter Score increased to 65 (31 December 2025: 63)

Continued to invest for the future

  • Investment into the multi-year modernisation of the Society’s core technology platform continues, with mobile app development and testing underway.
  • Our branch refurbishment programme continues, with York now refurbished and additional work in Reading and Kendal planned as part of the programme.
  • Supported research into the social value of branches with the Building Societies Association, showing that Leeds Building Society branches contribute up to £286 million in wider social value through the communities we serve2.
  • Our fraud clinics continue to prove extremely popular with members, with over 2,000 families helped since they first launched in 2025.

Supporting our colleagues and communities

  • Increased our fundraising target for Barnardo’s to £750,000 by the end of 2027.
  • Leeds Building Society Foundation supported 14 charities, with £171,000 awarded in large and small grants so far in 2026.
  • Listed as ‘One to Watch’ in The Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality, recognised for our commitment to supporting our colleagues to develop.

1Source: CACI’s CSDB, Stock, January 2026 to May 2026, latest data available. CACI is an independent company that provides financial benchmarking data of the retail cash savings market.

2Building Societies Association and RealWorth report into the social value of building society branch networks: The Social Value of the Building Society Branch Network