Building Societies Act passes legislative stage

The Building Societies Act 1986 (Amendment Bill) has been completed in Parliament.

This new Act of Parliament was introduced by Julie Elliott MP (Lab, Sunderland Central) to help to put building societies on a level playing field with their banking competitors, enabling them to support more lending to first-time buyers and homeowners in the future.

The Amendment to the current Act will enable building societies to have more capacity to lend to UK customers, and to access emergency funding from the Bank of England in a time of financial stress, without it impacting their funding limits. This will help to ensure building societies continue to operate safely and securely while also enabling them to help more people to get on the housing ladder.

Robin Fieth, Building Society Association Chief Executive, said “The fact that this Bill has been able to successfully complete the necessary Parliamentary stages as part of wash up is testament to the strong cross-party support for building societies and the important role they play in our communities.  Our thanks to Julie Elliott MP, who introduced this Bill, to Lord Kennedy of Southwark who took it through the Lords and to Economic Secretary to the Treasury Bim Afolami MP and his team at HM Treasury for all their support in ensuring it made it to the statute book.”

“The new Act will help level the playing field for the UK’s building societies and give them the capacity to lend more into the economy. It’s high time the 1986 Act was updated to reflect the needs of today’s economy. The changes brought in by this new Act will drive greater competition in the mortgage market, which will give mortgage customers more choice, and support a healthy marketplace.”