Background 

One of the critical social issues facing the UK today is home ownership. For many people owning their own home has become a dream that’s increasingly unreachable. With house prices having quadrupled since the start of the century and the average UK home now costing nearly 10 times the average wage, it’s the toughest it’s ever been to afford a home since Leeds Building Society (LBS) was founded in 1875. As a mutual society, LBS was established with the purpose of helping people own their homes and save for their future. Seeing how the dream of home ownership was becoming increasingly dim for many, LBS recognised the need to re-emphasise its purpose and be part of the solution to the current housing crisis.

Approach 

Towards the end of 2021, LBS partnered with businessfourzero to refocus its purpose into a clear and enduring commitment to ‘put home ownership within reach of more people generation after generation’. The executive team immersed itself in a creative process that produced a blueprint: a simple, enduring framework to guide the business and create an emotional connection to engage colleagues and inspire them to act, regardless of external changes.

The new purpose was then integrated into the business strategy and planning process, serving as a ‘north star’ for all decision-making. The purpose statement has a designed-in tension that forces the leadership team to balance the need for focused action that addresses the current barriers to home ownership, with the need to maintain a strong and resilient business that means they can deliver on their purpose for generations to come. This resulted in a series of purpose-aligned actions and the creation of a purpose impact report that set out the issues they aimed to tackle and the positive outcomes the new approach is delivering. A Culture Dashboard was introduced to measure the key cultural enablers of its purpose and track colleague understanding of and advocacy for its purpose-led strategy.

Outcome

The purpose blueprint significantly influenced LBS’ lending strategy. One bold decision was to stop lending against second home properties, as this directly reduces the housing stock available to local residents. Despite its financial implications, this decision was praised by industry experts, gave the company positive press and reinforced its position as a purpose-led business.

In 2022, despite prevailing market conditions, LBS increased mortgage lending and savings deposits, helping more people own their homes and save for their future. It benchmarked insight from the Culture Dashboard against the financial services sector, where it sits within the top 25%. Regular pulse survey results to track colleague engagement with the Blueprint remain exceptionally high at an average of 97% across all metrics.

LBS now plans to define its purpose ambition for the next five years and is prepared to use its financial strength to push home ownership ambitions, optimising for purpose rather than profit – truly a testament to its purpose-led approach.