SKIPTON Building Society recorded a decrease in its pre-tax profit for the first six months of this year.

It posted £67million, compared to £76.8m for the same six-month period in 2016.

But the society, which has branches across the Bradford district, did report a 19 per cent increase in its underlying group profit before tax to £87.4m. This was compared to £73.2m for the same period in 2016.

The society increased its customer membership by 25,907 to 886,310. This was a rise on the same period last year, which saw an increase of 20,839.

The group's gross mortgage lending increased to £2.4bn during the first half of this year, an increase from £1.9bn for the same period last year.

Its mortgage balances increased by £700m, which is a growth rate of 4.4 per cent since the end of last year. This was despite the disposal of a £220m mortgage during this period.

The society's savings balances increased by £500m to £14.6bn, a growth rate of 3.7 per cent since the end of last year.

David Cutter, Skipton's group chief executive, said: "Skipton has delivered another strong performance during the first six months of 2017.

"Customer numbers increased by 25,907, and for the third year in a row, the society was included in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For.

"The robustness of the business was recognised by the global credit rating agency Moody's, who upgraded the society for the third time in four years."