First time buyers turning to The West Brom

Nearly one in four of the home loans paid out by the society last year went to first-time buyers, says chief executive Jonathan Westhoff.

As a result mortgage lending at the Black Country's biggest society was at its highest in around a decade, up to £712 million.

While top line figures suffered a £27.5m hit from the loss of last year's buy-to-let landlords court case, the society saw its underlying profit figures jump by 60 per cent to £7.7m.

In his end-of-year report, Mr Westhoff defended the society's decision to charge higher rates of interest to around 6,700 buy-to-let landlords, despite losing last summer's court case.

Although the society had won a previous hearing at the High Court, this was overturned by the Court of Appeal. As a result, refunding the interest resulted in a £27.5m hit for the society and an end of year loss of £19.8m.

Mr Westhoff said: "It is regrettable that our attempts to introduce fairness, for the benefit of our membership as a whole, were ultimately blocked. We have, nonetheless, duly met our obligations to cease charging the additional interest and to reimburse affected borrowers for what had previously been levied."

Mr Westhoff said: "We haven't allowed ourselves to be distracted by it (the court case). We were very keen to sort the issue out last June and haven't let it distract us from what we are here to do: help people get the homes they want."

He said the society was winning more customers looking for a mortgage lender or a safe refuge for their savings, thanks to a range of products that frequently features in the 'best-buy' tables. While the amount of overall lending was up about six per cent, the society's mortgage book had increased by around 15 per cent, he said.

This was at a time when the housing market was 'pretty flat', indicating that the society was proving more attractive to a growing number of borrowers – particularly first timers. Mr Westhoff said about one in four of its new borrowers were now first time buyers.

While many of its customers are from its West Midlands heartland, across the Black Country, Birmingham, Shropshire and mid-Wales, where it has a proportionately greater share of the market, Mr Westhoff said the society now had customers from across the UK.

The society currently has 446,000 members while its assets currently stand at £5.8 billion.

Looking ahead, Mr Westhoff said: "Despite the uncertainty that may result from the events of 2016, the society has achieved lending growth and maintained a solid capital base.

"Furthermore, the upward trend in underlying profitability is testimony to the strength of the society’s business model. We are therefore well equipped to face the challenges which may lie ahead and remain confident in our ability to continue doing what we do best – fulfilling the needs of our membership."