... to own their own homes. It has been giving people something to work for and a sense of achievement from living in a house of one's own, enabling them also to save and provide for retirement and old age. In the UK at this time are 80 building societies with 5,500 branches, having between them something around 30 million accounts (savers and borrowers) and assets of £262 billion. Their net profits of £1 billion amount to a net profit per account of GBP 35. UK legislation regulates what building societies may, or may not, do. When banks started to offer mortgages, building societies were enabled by legislation to compete with banks by providing personal loans and other financial services such as current accounts. But building societies have been merging, been taken over by banks and have turned themselves into banks. Their number is reducing and branches are being closed down. Portman building ...

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