The society’s mortgage book grew by 7.1%.

Chief executive David Marlow said: “At the beginning of the year we undertook to continue to grow the society, invest in improving our offering and service as well as look at how we could build and reward loyal membership of The Nottingham.

“At the half year point we are pleased to report good progress in all of these objectives. We have continued to grow the balance sheet and have delivered asset growth of 6.1% in the first six months of the year.

In 2015 the lender became the first building society to offer whole of market advice in all of its branches. On launching the initative Marlow said: “There are 7,300 mortgages currently on offer in the market, and finding the right one can prove challenging. We believe we can provide a valuable service to new and existing customers by helping them find the best mortgage for them, wherever that may come from. It will make us far more relevant to a large number of potential new customers”.

Mitul Patel, founder of Lemon Tree Financial said the strategy is a “great USP” which allows the lender “to find the most suitable mortgage product for their clients from the mortgage maze”.

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He added: “It’s a win win situation for the client and the lender but, at the same time, they represent competition for brokers.”

The society also reported pre-tax profit of £7.6m (up 7%) and said arrears levels remain at a historic low.