< Back to the AGM 2026
In conversation with Annette and Brendan
Our Interim CEO, Annette Barnes, and our Chair, Brendan McCafferty, reflect on 2025 and share their thoughts on the year ahead.
What are your reflections on 2025?
"2025 marked our 150th anniversary and offered a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come. With over one million members, every decision we make is guided by their needs and by ensuring the Society’s long-term strength.
Our financial strength reinforces our ability to invest in the long term replacement of our core banking platform, while also enabling us to continue improving service levels and, in turn, the overall member experience.
We also continued to innovate and create products that help people take their first steps onto the housing ladder." - Annette
You’ve mentioned that we’re continuing to innovate to support first time buyers. How did we do that in 2025?
"Affordability remained a major challenge, with the average home in the UK now costing £270,0001. Our Income Plus range, launched in December 2024, allows first time buyers to borrow up to 5.5 times their salary and purchase a property they may previously have been unable to afford. That range supported over 900 first time buyers into homes last year.
In fact, almost half of our residential mortgages went to first time buyers, and we continue to support options such as shared ownership. We were proud to be named ‘Best Shared Ownership Lender’ in the 2025 What Mortgage Awards for the tenth consecutive year." - Annette
In difficult times it’s important that we continue to support the communities around us. How did we do that in 2025?
"As Annette has mentioned, housing affordability is a real issue, and alongside our lending we supported charities across the UK. To mark our anniversary, we donated an additional £100,000 to the Leeds Building Society Foundation, which awarded over £450,000 in 2025 to 50 charities.
The Society also donated a share of £150,000 to five organisations that applied for a programme of grant funding to support those in need of a safe and secure home across the country.
We also launched a partnership with the national charity for care experienced children and young people, Become, to support young people leaving the care system to move into independent living. Our work with Barnardo’s has continued and having reached our £300,000 fundraising target ahead of schedule, we’ve increased it to £500,000 by the spring of 2027." - Brendan
There have been a few leadership changes at the Society over the course of the last year. What’s your message to members about these changes?
"Richard Fearon, who had been CEO of the Society since 2019 and spent nine years at the Society, advised the Board towards the end of 2025 of his decision to leave the business. I’d like to thank him for the progress he led in his time as CEO. He can rightly be proud of steering the business through the Covid-19 pandemic, implementing our refreshed purpose centred around home ownership and overseeing successive years of growth.
Our investment in core mortgages and savings technology will usher in a new phase of the Society’s history, and in 2026 we’ll be appointing a new CEO to lead that multi-year transformation. Annette will continue as Interim CEO until a permanent successor is in place and I’m grateful to her for her leadership and commitment.
Andrew Conroy, Chief Financial Officer, also left the Society after almost seven years’ service and I’d like to thank him for his significant contribution. His permanent replacement, Arlene Cairns, joins us in May." - Brendan
How did we support our savings members last year?
"As a mutual, we offered savings rates 0.90% above the market average, resulting in £225.6 million in additional annual interest for members2. We know how much our savings members value our branches, so we continued modernising our high street network, completing refurbishments in Harrogate, Halifax, and North Shields, and relocating our South Shields branch. As well as this, we’ve reaffirmed our commitment to passbooks. Having one is belonging to a building society, so we’re bucking the trend and keeping them.
Last year we campaigned against any changes to cash ISA limits on behalf of our members. Whilst we welcomed the government’s decision to ultimately protect a £20,000 annual ISA allowance, and retain the £20,000 cash ISA allowance for members over 65, reducing the cash ISA allowance for under 65s to £12,000 from April 2027 limits choice for savers." - Annette
Are we making progress on our journey towards net zero?
"We’re continuing to see the effects of climate change across the world and the pace of change to address the causes remains slow; however, I’m pleased that we took further steps towards our net zero ambitions in 2025. The modernisation programme is making our branches more energy efficient, and we launched a new green additional borrowing product to fund a range of energy efficient home improvements for members. These actions allowed us to meet all four of our 2025 climate targets; however, without urgent action from government, society and industry, reaching all our near-term targets remains unlikely." - Annette
How have we made progress on inclusion and diversity?
"In 2025, 114 colleagues undertook apprenticeships or external learning opportunities. These focused on areas such as coaching capability, a key skill identified for the future, and initiatives to support the development of our diverse pipelines. They also support the development of female-identifying colleagues and colleagues from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Our key challenge of increasing diversity in senior leadership remains. However, I’m pleased that in 2025 we saw female representation on our Executive Committee increase to 50%, up from 25% in 2024, but there is clearly much more work we need to do." - Brendan
What has been your personal highlight of 2025?
"I’ve really enjoyed spending time with our colleagues and members. Whether chatting to colleagues over lunch, meeting members in branches or asking members to speak at our leadership conference, hearing their perspectives helps me to understand their experiences and find solutions to support them. Maintaining that constant conversation is vital." - Annette
What’s your message to members for 2026?
"Despite an unsettled economic and political landscape, our members can be confident in our resilience. Competition in the market has increased, but the investments we’re making, both in our physical branches and online services, will ensure that we can continue to support members for the next 150 years. Thank you for your ongoing support." - Brendan
1As of December 2025, the average house price in the UK was £270,259, and the index stood at 103.6. Property prices fell by 0.7% compared to the previous month, and rose by 2.4% compared to the previous year (UK House Price Index, 2025).
2The Society paid an average of 3.92% to our savers compared to the rest of market average of 3.02%, which equates to an annual benefit to our savers of £225.6m. Source: CACI’s CSDB, Stock, January 2025 to December 2025, latest data available. CACI is an independent company that provides financial benchmarking data of the retail cash savings market.
