Silsden, West Yorkshire-based Ecology Building Society on Wednesday announced results for the year ending December 31, 2019, showing savings balances up 11.6% at £185.3 million and record profit after tax of £1.073 million.
Gross lending rose to £43.5 million from £38.4 million and the mutual had total assets of £198 million.
“In 2019 we lent over £43.5m for sustainable properties and projects, with 90% of mortgages for residential properties (including new energy efficient homes, renovations and shared ownership) and 10% for community-led housing (including charities, community land trusts and housing co-operatives) and non-residential properties such as sustainable businesses,” said Ecology Building Society.
“The results build on nearly 40 years of uninterrupted profitability demonstrating that values-based and purpose-driven finance also makes real economic sense.
“The profit adds to our capital base, increasing our financial strength and enhancing our ability to remain resilient to the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak and extend the benefits of our sustainable lending.”
Ecology Building Society CEO Paul Ellis said: “These results mark another strong year of sustainable growth for Ecology demonstrating that the time is now for finance that benefits people and our planet.
“Our members can be assured that their money is delivering a real contribution to the increasing efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
“Looking ahead, while we won’t be immune to the challenging economic impacts of Covid-19, our financial strength gives us the resilience required to maintain our focus on lending that improves our environment throughout 2020 and beyond.
“We are delighted to see the elevated level of interest in collaborative action to support a sustainable green recovery.
“The recognition of the urgent need to accelerate the retrofit of existing homes is welcome and the Society’s strong pipeline of lending for low impact homes will add to the benefits of this focus in 2020 and beyond.
“Given this we have joined calls for the Government to quickly deliver the economic stimulus required to create green jobs and a just transition to a low-carbon economy.”