Newcastle Building society has issued a warning that the coronavirus pandemic will continue to affect the region鈥檚 economy for some time, despite seeing some signs of recovery in its half-year results.
The building society said had delivered a 鈥渟trong performance鈥 in the first half of 2021 with a 78% increase in operating profit to 拢5.7m.
But it warned that the 鈥渢he pandemic is far from over and there will no doubt be further challenges ahead鈥.
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After reporting an increase in credit and legacy provisions at the end of 2020, the society said it had not seen any reason in the first six months of 2021 to increase that provision.
But it said would be 鈥渨atchful鈥 of economic conditions and was committed to remaining strongly capitalised.
The society, which last month announced that North East England Chamber of Commerce chief executive James Ramsbotham would be taking over as its chair later this year, said it had benefitted from both a growing savings market and a boom in house sales.
Chief executive officer Andrew Haigh said: 鈥淎lthough we are experiencing positive uplifts in the economy, we are mindful that uncertainty continues to dominate not just the economic environment, but the lives of our members too and is likely to continue for some time.
鈥淭he resilience we demonstrated in 2020 laid the necessary foundations to deliver strong results in the first half of 2021, despite Covid-19 restrictions and uncertainties.
鈥淲e鈥檝e continued our focus on helping communities recover from the impacts of the pandemic, and driven innovations in home ownership to help borrowers onto the property ladder, particularly those with lower deposits.鈥
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The society said it had welcomed more than 2,300 new mortgage customers in the first half of the year, and had launched initiatives to help people struggling to raise a large deposit.
The period saw the society move to a single office space at Cobalt Business Park, leaving its Newcastle city centre headquarters, while it signalled plans for new or refurbished branches at West Denton, Tynemouth and Bishop Auckland as it positions itself against the grain of branch closures in most parts of the banking sector.
The society also highlighted its community work, which saw 拢111,000 of support grants to organisations working in employability skills, food poverty and debt management.
It has also launched a 拢1.1m partnership with the Newcastle United Foundation to deliver a new community hub for sports, education and wellbeing in the city鈥檚 west end.
