Jenny Hawthorne (pictured) is business development manager atDudley Building Society
The self employed in the UK are a group that increases every day with a recent statistic showing that there are 4.85 million in that category.
This underserved collective are unfairly badged as higher risk, with the prejudice not only being limited to the mortgage market. We strongly believe that those that are self employed do not offer additional risk, but simply a different risk that needs to be better understood by the providers of credit.
Complexity is common with the self employed market and especially in the case of mortgage finance it requires a higher level of skills and understanding if their needs are to be met effectively.
It is important to not take a broad brush approach to the market. There are a broad range of sub categories that all have their own nuances that require a little more time to thoroughly align themselves to a product or service range.
As a society we moved to accepting applicants with as little as one year’s accounts. This was well received by our partners and the quality of application that we have seen from this area of the market has been very pleasing.
Common sense must always prevail and we are very focussed on offering real choice and freedom to our partners and their clients. We live in a world that change is the norm and we must offer the level of flexibility that a modern borrower demands – and deserves.
