Yorkshire Building Society has published its fourth annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, showcasing the mutual’s efforts in 2024 to deliver its purpose, Real Help with Real Life. The report highlights the progress the Society has made to benefit its members, customers, colleagues, and communities.
The report outlines how the Society helped over 51,000 people secure a place to call home in 2024, including helping 23,000 people to get onto the property ladder with its first-time buyer mortgages. In the same year, the mutual launched its ground-breaking £5k Deposit Mortgage which enabled hundreds of people to purchase their first home. Recognising the need for broader efforts to address wider housing market challenges, in Autumn 2024, the mutual hosted a parliamentary event in Westminster, advocating for new policies to support sustainable homes and enhanced assistance for first-time buyers.
In addition to the people who have been helped to improve financial resilience through Yorkshire Building Society’s savings products, the report highlights how the Society’s community initiatives supported thousands of people to improve their financial wellbeing. The Society’s partnership with food redistribution charity, FareShare, equipped 660 individuals with future-ready skills through its employability programme, Building Skills for the Future, and 66 participants secured employment in 2024. Additionally, the Society’s award-winning collaboration with Citizens Advice provided 5,600 people with free, impartial advice on a range of issues, from debt advice to housing issues, potentially unlocking an additional £3.1million of income for clients.
The report also outlines the Society’s ongoing support of the UK's transition to a low-carbon economy by minimising its climate-related impact. Actions the Society has undertaken in 2024 to support its goal of achieving Net Zero operations by 2035 are also highlighted, this includes the installation of a solar carport at its Bradford head office, which will reduce the need to buy electricity from the grid and help to reduce the Society’s carbon footprint.
The Society is committed to cultivating an ambitious culture, and the report reflects an engaged and diverse workforce. The Society’s diversity, equity and inclusion engagement score puts it in the upper quartile for its industry, and the society continues to show strong representation of women in leadership roles, with 47.3% of senior management positions being held by women.
In 2025, the mutual has brought together its Strategy, Environmental Sustainability and Social Purpose teams to create a new Strategy and Sustainability function. The new team will be reviewing and enhancing the Society’s ESG approach.
Susan Allen, chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society said: “For over 160 years, Yorkshire Building Society has focused on providing Real Help with Real Life, for generation after generation, and this purpose continues to guide everything we do.
“As our 2024 ESG report shows, we have helped more people make homeownership a reality, supported people to start and maintain a savings habit, enabled our colleagues to thrive, and remained focused on improving the impact we make on our planet.
“With the support of our dedicated colleagues, robust governance, and ambitious strategy, we are committed to evolving the Society to ensure it is ready to face the future, growing sustainably for the benefit of all.”
Yorkshire Building Society’s ESG report can be viewed here.
