Celebrating 250 Years of Building Society’s in 2025.

Posted on 19th May 25

2025 is a landmark year for Building Society’s across the UK and the Building Society Association, as we celebrate 250 years since the first ever Building Society, Ketley Building Society, was established in 1775 at the start of the industrial revolution. Like all good ideas, it started in the pub and the Society was founded in the Golden Cross Inn, Birmingham, by landlord Richard Ketley.

Helping people to have a home of their own.

Societies were set up by ordinary working people to help themselves and their communities to build financial resilience and buy a home of their own, by pooling their savings to buy land and build homes, drawing lots to determine who would get the home. They carried on saving until they had built a house for every member of the group.

This simple idea of people coming together to build stronger communities, create greater financial resilience and provide access to home ownership to the masses rather than the elite, remains at the heart of today’s building societies. 

Two hundred and fifty years later Building Societies are still providing a safe home for people’s savings and using this money as a means for others to buy homes. All 42 Building Societies around today are still mutually owned by their Members. This means Building Societies are not driven by profits, like the big banks. Instead they make enough profit to remain secure and sustainable.

That mutual value is evident when you look at the stats. In the past five years alone, Building Societies like Bath Building Society have:

• Helped almost half a million first time buyers get on the property ladder
• Paid savers more than £5.4 billion more in interest than the big banks
• Increased share of high street Branches to 30%

Continuing to deliver value to Members

Two and a half centuries on, Building Societies are still owned and run for the benefit of their customers, which is reflected in rates, products and service. As mutual organisations, the culture, behaviour and decisions are different to banks who must focus on creating profits for external shareholders rather than delivering value to customers. 

Societies have a continued focus on finding solutions to the challenges facing first time buyers. Many (like Bath) do this by continuing to manually underwrite non-standard mortgage applications, rejecting the ‘computer says no’ approach of other lenders. 

Regulation can often be seen as a barrier to lending, but Building Societies don’t sit back and accept this, they campaign for smarter regulation and housing solutions. For example, 10 years ago it was the Building Societies who led a review of lending age limits to reflect the increased life expectancy and changing retirement habits of borrowers. 

Building Societies also look for innovative ways to overcome challenges and lend within the regulatory framework. At Bath Building Society we have launched specialist mortgages including Buy For University, to allow students to get on the property ladder while studying. The innovative Rent A Room mortgage which considers future rental income in mortgage calculations as well as Retirement Mortgages for older home owners, all of which support buyers within the current regulatory framework. 

Building financial resilience

Helping people build financial resilience is equally important to Building Societies as supporting people into home ownership. Recognising there are many people in the UK with little or no savings to fall back on, Bath launched a series of Regular Saver accounts designed to encourage Members and local people to put aside a small amount of savings each month.

Supporting communities

Building societies prioritise investing in the local community and are much more likely to retain high street Branches. Their current share of UK high street branches is 30%*, more than double the proportion they had (14%) in 2012. Many Building Societies have seen an increase in younger people seeking out face to face support in Branches as concerns around financial security are more prevalent.

No wonder 72% of Building Society customers said their provider is an important part of their community, compared to just 54% of bank customers. Building societies’ customers also rate their provider higher on customer service than bank customers rate theirs.

Robin Fieth, Chief Executive of the Building Societies Association, said: “Building Societies have never lost sight of their purpose to help Members to save and to become homeowners. 

“Their business model doesn’t rely on profit maximisation to line the pockets of external shareholders, it prioritises the needs of their customers, the Members, and delivers value to them and their communities. At 250 years old, you could say they are the original B Corp!  

“I am proud that the way customer-owned Building Societies do business is different to the banks. We are the original money movement, set up by ordinary working people, for ordinary working people and to help local communities to thrive. 

“Anyone who is looking for a new mortgage or savings account, I’d recommend consciously thinking about who you choose to do business with. You could find an organisation that genuinely cares about their customers, who treats them as an individual, and keeps them at the heart of every decision they make.”