AU T U M N 2021

Back to the Future? We queued at petrol stations. We watched the weather forecast for signs of wind to keep the turbines turning. Those of us of a certain age may have reminisced about cosy candlelit evenings of the mid 70’s and the three day week. It was a tailor made excuse for me not to be able to hand in my homework!

As we read of energy supply issues, inflation predicted to be higher than is probably healthy, a historically high tax burden and an NHS struggling with waiting lists, for some of us who were alive in the previous energy crisis, it all seems a bit too familiar!

Fifty years later the UK economy is structurally different. For one thing, we did not see then the high level of job vacancies we see today.

Spending and interest ratesHowever, current government spending and borrowing may be hard to sustain and that is before meeting the challenge of rising social care costs and net zero carbon targets. Governments are the largest borrowers. They want interest rates to be low. But whatever politicians may say and wish for, the currency and bond markets will have their say. This may end up being like watching an immovable object being met by an irresistible force.

How all this plays out socially, politically, medically and economically, over the coming years will be fascinating. It will likely shape things for years to come. And as always when social, political and economic commentators coalesce around common opinions, it will be the one that few have predicted that normally results.

Pessimism vs optimism?Eighteen months ago, as we went into lockdown, how many forecast what would happen to house prices and what would people have thought of such a forecast? One of our big Buy to Let portfolio clients told me that we would see prices increase I honestly thought he was nuts. He was right. Is one of our biggest risks now too much pessimism, too much risk aversion?

Did Rishi Sunak take a risk when he introduced the stamp duty holiday up to £500,000 in July 2020? We believe that he did exactly the right thing. People moving and optimising our existing housing stock is a surefire way of driving economic activity and creating jobs. Think of the work that goes into preparing a property for sale and all the jobs that are supported during and post-sale. Estate agents, valuers, solicitors, plumbers, electricians, decorators, gardeners, DIY and furniture stores… the list goes on. It was exactly the right economic stimulus at the right time. We asked the London School of Economics to research the effects of the policy, and you can read the results of their work in this newsletter. We firmly believe that the Stamp Duty holiday should have continued. Remember above the £500,000 threshold people still pay high rates of duty, as do second home buyers and Buy to Let landlords.

Our economy is probably delicately balanced between a good post lockdown recovery and real weakness. Should the Bank of England significantly put up interest rates to counter rising inflationary pressures, it could be quite painful. There are many homeowners who have never lived in a time of rising interest rates. How many of us remember interest rates at 15%? I do. Much, much better for savers though is that interest rates are higher.

The high proportion of people that now take fixed rate mortgages, the lessons learned from the previous financial crisis and the stress test that most borrowers must now satisfy before being granted a mortgage, means that many borrowers would be in a stronger position to weather an increase in rates than they might have been previously.

You and your SocietyWhatever the economic background, I understand that what really matters is you and your family’s individual experience. Just like the pandemic, and in turbulent times before, our experiences are individual to us. Your Society’s job is to provide a strong and stable home for your deposits and pay interest on

those deposits by providing our borrowers with affordable mortgages based on sensible and sound underwriting decisions. This is what we will continue to do, no matter what may be happening ‘out there’.

Finally, may I please ask you to complete our annual customer survey?

This really helps us know what we can do better and ensures we have you at the heart of everything we do.

M A RK BOG A RD CEO

WELCOMEFOR MANY, IT IS STILL A R ATHER TOUGH TIME TO BE AN OPTIMIST.

MEMBERS’ QUESTIONNAIRE Each year, we give all our members the opportunity to share their experience and feedback with us. We really value your feedback, both positive and negative as it helps us to give you a better service.You can let us know what you think by completing the online questionnaire by following the easy steps below:

1. Visit familybuildingsociety.co.uk/feedback2021

2. Click ‘Start questionnaire’.3. Enter your feedback: it only takes

around 10 minutes.

4. Select ‘Submit’.5. You will then be taken back to our

website for the opportunity to enterour prize draw for a chance to win £500*.

Like previous years, we are partnering with eForest and will plant a tree for every 10 questionnaires completed online to help our ambition of reducing our carbon footprint. * Terms and conditions apply. For details, please

visit familybuildingsociety.co.uk/feedback2021

Children and young people encounter money earlier and earlier, from spending and saving their pocket money to paying mobile phone bills and budgeting salary from part-time jobs. We believe it’s really important for young people to have the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage their money well.

Financial education guidesTo help with this, we’ve created a series of free financial education guides in partnership with Young Money - a charity that provides resources for teaching young people money management skills. We hope that these guides will help young people to have a clearer understanding of how to manage their money, make informed money-related decisions, and know where to seek further support and advice if required. The guides will also help young people to become aware of their own behaviour and emotions when making financial decisions.

Let's talk financesOur guides are designed for 5-18 year olds and cover a wide range of topics, with each including a selection of activities. The activities are great to do as a family, although older children will be able to do them on their own if they wish. However you choose to do them, they’re a great starting point for discussing finances with your children or grandchildren.

Money guidesMoney guides for children for children

What topics do the guides cover?

The guides are available to view, download and print from our website: familybuildingsociety.co.uk/children-and-money

Age 5-7Age 5-7Age 7-11Age 7-11

Age 11-14Age 11-14Age 14-16

Age 14- 16Age 16-18Age 16-18

What is money?How should I look after my money?Getting the savings habitBudgeting basicsSavvy shopperForeign currencyStaying safe with money online Better budgeting - preparing for independenceBorrowing and credit need to knowsSaving for the future

RECENT IMPROVEMENTS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTSYour feedback helps us to review our processes and products to ensure we are serving you in the best way we can. This, and developments in financial technology, helps shape some of the improvements that we make in our supporting systems and processes.

Using robots to free up time for staff Some of these changes are not always visible. For example, the Society ‘employs’ a number of virtual ‘robots' that can quickly and easily input mortgage applications. This frees up our underwriters to concentrate on listening to customers’ sometimes complicated stories and making decisions in a sensible real-world way.

Similarly, we've automated the printing and despatch of savings application packs, allowing more time for our customer service staff to help you with account queries.

Personalising statementsSome changes are a little more visible. Following on from the positive reaction to the Annual Mortgage Statements and the Annual Savings Summary, ISA customers will have recently received their new look personalised ISA statements. These deliver a clearer layout, with a greater focus on what is relevant to each individual account.

The next few years will see us introduce several new systems and solutions to help our members manage their accounts in the way that suits them. This could mean managing your mortgage product switch online or receiving your account application updates by text.

STAMP DUTY HOLIDAY RESEARCH WITH THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICSIn July 2020, the government introduced the stamp duty holiday for properties up to £500,000 – a potential saving of up to £15,000. This was brought in to protect and generate jobs by stimulating the housing market.

To help better understand the effects this had on the UK housing market and economy, we commissioned research with the London School of Economics. As part of the research we contacted customers who had taken out a mortgage with us during the stamp duty holiday – thank you to everyone who took part by completing an online questionnaire. We also contacted mortgage intermediaries for their views.

Clearly the policy had a positive effect on transactions. In the first quarter of 2021 there were 50% more property purchase transactions than in the first quarter of 2020, i.e. before the pandemic struck.

But what about the economy? Our report highlighted that people spend money on the moving process and movers are improvers. They spend money on their new home, perhaps 5% of the cost of the home in the first year.

That adds up to anywhere between £1.8- £2.7 billion being injected into the economy – probably more by the time you add the multiplier effect.

Our report also highlighted that the stamp duty holiday supports the government’s levelling up agenda, given that house prices are higher in London and the South East and that increased transactions mean better use of the housing stock as people move to more suitable properties.

In short, the impact of the stamp duty holiday was positive - it stimulated the housing market, increased expenditure on goods and services related to housing transactions and helped create and sustain jobs.

Lobbying the government about stamp dutyWe agree with the findings in our research that many people find stamp duty an unacceptable form of taxation which distorts decisions about moving. We believe the government needs to re-think its housing policy and the principle aims of the stamp duty holiday should have continued, certainly for properties up to £500,000. We have shared the report and the findings with MPs and other key stakeholders and will continue to lobby on your behalf for a real change to this unfair tax.

You can find out more and download the report at: familybuildingsociety.co.uk/stamp-duty-holiday

ARE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS UP TO DATE? To fully benefit from these improvements mentioned above, we need to ensure that the details we have for you are up-to-date.

Having a valid email address is also a very simple way to potentially save on masses of paper which we know some of you do not like. Providing us with an email address won’t mean we suddenly send everything by email, as we’ll still work with you to communicate in the way that you prefer. However, as our systems improve, we may be able to send some things by email or by text, so you can receive them instantly, and have them to hand, thus making them more accessible too.

Next time you have a query, when you call us why not take a few minutes to check all your details are still up-to-date? We’ll try to suggest this when you call us, but it will really help us if you can have all your information to hand so we can help you quickly and efficiently.

2021 AWARDSWe are proud to have added a number of awards to our cabinet this year.

WHAT MORTGAGE AWARDS:Best Guarantor/Assisted Mortgage Lender (Winner)Best Offset Mortgage Lender (Highly Commended)

MONEYFACTS AWARDS: Best No Notice Account Provider (Winner)Best Building Society Savings Provider (Highly Commended)

PERSONAL FINANCE AWARDS:Best First Time Buyer Mortgage Provider (Winner)

WAYS TO STAY IN TOUCH

FAMILY BUILDING SOCIETYfamilybuildingsociety.co.uk

Existing Account Enquiries:

Savings: 03330 140144savings.service@familybsoc.co.uk

Mortgages: 03330 140146mortgage.service@familybsoc.co.uk

New Business Enquiries:

Savings: 03330 140141

Mortgages: 03330 140140

newbusiness@familybsoc.co.uk

facebook.com/FamilyBSoc

twitter.com/FamilyBSoc

Epsom Branch

Ashley Square, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 5DD

Opening times:Monday to Friday: 9am to 4.30pmExcluding Bank Holidays

Head Office:

Ebbisham House, 30 Church Street, Epsom, Surrey KT17 4NL

C/351/1021/FBS/MKTG

We may record any telephone calls we have with you in the interest of staff training, monitoring customer service or for security purposes.

Family Building Society is a trading name of National Counties Building Society which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Firm Reference No. 206080.

A TOUGH TIME FOR CHARITIESEven though life is slowly returning to how it used to be pre-Covid, for many charities the last 18 months have seen fund raising activity greatly reduced, and in some cases it’s completely stopped. Arguably one of the most well-known fund-raising activities in the UK, the Royal British Legion’s annual poppy appeal, had to cancel its street collections last year, which resulted in millions of lost income to the charity.

As a result, donations have become more important, and this is why our staff and CSR committee agreed that we maintain the relationships with the charities we have supported for the last few years.

The charities we support were chosen by a staff vote three years ago, as they all resonated with our staff and aligned to our Society values. Almost all of the charities are local to our Head Office in Epsom, and we also felt that the work they do was very likely to either directly or indirectly benefit many of our members.

The charities include Age Concern (Epsom), Epsom and Ewell Food Bank, Surrey Young Carers, Princess Alice Hospice, and SeeAbility, each of whom will have received £2,500 in 2021. We’re also happy to confirm that we’ve recently started to organise the first volunteer days in nearly two years. Hopefully, when our Spring newsletter 2022 is released, we’ll have lots more stories to tell about volunteering and fund-raising once again.

To find out more about the charities we support and how we help them visitfamilybuildingsociety.co.uk/charity

PROTECTING YOURSELF – A REMINDERFraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their attempts to steal personal data and your money. It’s important to protect yourself against scams and to know how we are protecting your data.

You can find out more by visiting our website:familybuildingsociety.co.uk/fraud-and-scams

PAYMENT WORRIES?Interest rates may rise in the foreseeable future; that may, in time, impact your monthly mortgage payments or other interest payments that you have to make. If you are concerned about your ability to make payments on your mortgage now or at any stage in the future, then please do contact us to talk about your concerns. We are here to help and can offer help and advice at an early stage including putting you in touch with a number of charities and money advice services. You can also visit our website for more information:familybuildingsociety.co.uk/mortgages/advice-on-payment-difficulties