Skipton has linked-up with CMME, the UK’s largest contractor specialist broker.
New lending criteria to help meet the mortgage needs of Skipton Building Society’s contractor clients has been welcomed by brokers.
The move comes following Skipton intermediaries link-up with CMME, the UK’s largest contractor specialist broker, to establish how it could fulfil its Real Life Lending charter and work closer to provide mortgage finance for anyone employed as a contractor.
Given the sustained growth of the professional contractor population in the UK over the past two decades, Skipton recognised the increasing demand for mortgages by this specialist segment of the workforce.
In 2018, Skipton started to engage with broker partners who specialised in this area, to provide insight and feedback to help shape a new approach which meets their contractor clients’ mortgage needs.
Andrew Cutmore (pictured right), Skipton’s south coast business development manager, said: “We’ve always been happy to consider customers employed on a zero hours contract or via an agency especially where we can see they’ve got a history of earnings. However, we were receiving more and more enquiries from contractors employed on ‘day rate’ contracts and they’d often be receiving much higher incomes.
“We identified our existing lending approach didn’t really cater for these enquiries. We therefore engaged with specialist brokers in this sector and asked for their input into how we could work closer to provide mortgage finance.
“CMME, the UK’s largest contractor specialist broker have been instrumental and supportive with their extensive knowledge and insight into the contractor market, and helped us build our new contactor policy. Since the launch of its new lending criteria for contractors, Skipton has seen a spike in enquiries and, in the vast majority of cases, is now able to support these clients with their home-buying aspirations or remortgage plans."
Taj Kang (pictured left), director at CMME, was enthusiastic about Skipton’s contribution to mortgage availability for independent professionals.
He said: “First of all, it was refreshing to see Skipton make live their contractor policy so quickly after initial conversations. They had an open-minded approach to address criteria gaps based on conversations with CMME. Skipton then moved quickly to get these gaps addressed and signed off internally, making the policy live within four months from start to finish. If only more lenders were similarly decisive about new product development!”
John Scrivens, Skipton’s regional manager intermediary relationships, added: “As an award winning five star lender for service, Skipton Intermediaries is committed to delivering a high level of customer service by listening to its broker partners and acting upon their feedback. The introduction of this new policy for professional contractors is just one of the many things Skipton has launched to demonstrate their commitment to their broker partners.“
