The Cambridge Building Society celebrates its 175th anniversary with £175,000 pledge
The Cambridge Building Society marked its 175th anniversary on Tuesday (21 January) with a pledge that it would donate £175,000 to good causes – each year.
It is also organising a design-a-coin competition, planning to host a community conference and expanding its innovative Rent to Home scheme to help more people get on the housing ladder as part of its celebrations.
The society’s history is captured in the books and records kept in its vaults.
CEO Peter Burrows told the Cambridge Independent: “It goes back to a meeting on the 19th January 1850, where it was proposed in the town hall to consider the establishment of a building society. Two days later, the formal papers were put together and signed.”
Papers show there were to be monthly meetings of The Cambridge Permanent Benefit Building Society, as it was called, between 7pm and 9pm on the third Monday of every month at Mr Charles Wisbey’s Auction Room in Trinity Street, Cambridge.
Building societies at the time operated with a community of contributors helping each other buy a property.
“It was fiendishly complicated back in those days and a number of schemes were started that ran in parallel under The Cambridge Building Society banner as it was,” explained Peter. “But what it typically meant was that if you joined the building society, you would contribute a certain amount each week along with everybody else, which is why these things often started in pubs, because they needed communal meeting places with a decent number of people.
“Everyone put in and when there was enough money in the pot to buy a house it was literally a lottery and the winners got a house.
“We’ve got a replica of the original mechanism that was used to draw the lottery balls and we use it in our Rent to Home scheme.
“A number of societies were set up under what’s called a terminating basis, so if 50 people were in it, then 50 people and their descendants would stay in it, and once you had your house you were expected to continue paying into it. Over time, hopefully, the building society would provide a house for all 50 members and at that point the building society’s work was done and it would terminate. The ratio of house prices to earnings was a lot lower in those days!
“Within the original set-up of the society here, a number of schemes started and finished at different times. It took a while for things to be modernised and the name to be changed to the rather more punchy Cambridge Building Society, and it to continue on a permanent basis in the manner that we are today.”
The society’s first premises were in the site where The Cambridge’s central Cambridge store is based on St Andrew’s Street.
“Hopefully we’ll continue to go from strength to strength for another 175 years. I hope to get us off to another good start!” said Peter.
The Cambridge is renowned for its community activities – including its community fund and support for the annual Bridge the Gap charity walk.
But to mark its birthday, it is stepping up this aspect of its work.
“We are going to pledge £175,000 each year out of our profits into community causes,” revealed Peter.
“We already do a fair bit in the community, but this is upping our game, and making a public commitment that every year we’ll keep it at £175,000.”
The commitment expands on its existing community fund, and the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation will continue to administer much of it.
“We also intend to run a coin competition, aimed largely at younger people, although there will be no restriction. We will do something potentially with schools where they can design a coin. We will get chocolate versions of that made up and we’ll give them out in our branches,” said Peter.
“We will also hold a community conference this year, where we’ll try and get other like-minded businesses and organisations to talk about how best we can do good in the community. We hope to get some energy and action around that and we’ll get the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation involved in that too.
“And we intend to produce a time capsule with some information about the building society as it was and as it is now, and maybe get some of our members to contribute to it. We’ll probably get that opened in 25 years’ time for our 200th.”
The capsule, which will be locked away in The Cambridge’s vaults, could also feature videos or audio recordings in addition to artefacts.
“Probably the biggest challenge in 25 years will be finding something to take a USB connection!” said Peter.
“We were talking the other day about the major events that the society has had to deal with in its 175 years and of course, there were the First and Second World Wars. Then the pandemic was a major episode in our history not many years ago.
“But we also looked at the more positive things we’ve gone through. From what we can tell in our books and records, it was 1975 that we first started to computerise the society’s records. It’s amazing to think that for the first 125 years of our life – and even only 50 years ago – things were principally done on pen and paper.
“This is why we are thinking of laying a time capsule down for only 25 years, rather than 100 years. If I was able to wander back into Cambridge Building Society only 25 years ago it would be really interesting and probably useful to see how far we’ve come in only two and half decades.”
One of its more recent innovations is its unique Rent to Home scheme, which is aimed at helping those who can afford monthly rental payments but find saving enough for a deposit to buy a home to be a challenge.
Under the scheme, a ballot is held among eligible applicants. The successful individual or couple then rents one of The Cambridge’s homes for up to three years and then up to 70 per cent of the rent they have paid will be returned to them to help towards the deposit for a new home if they take a mortgage with the society.
Under the latest expansion, two homes that The Cambridge has purchased in Woolpit – not far from its latest branch in Bury St Edmunds – entered the scheme from Tuesday.
Applications to first-time buyers who live and work locally are open until 4 March at cambridgebs.co.uk/ more/making-the-difference/rent-to-home#apply, where details of eligibility can be found. The winners will be drawn on 12 March, using The Cambridge’s replica ballot box from its early days.
“Given the nature of the scheme, it’s no surprise that we’re usually very oversubscribed but it will help two more people or couples on the property ladder,” said Peter.
“We are targeting people who are working and contributing to the community and want to get on the housing ladder but find it difficult at the income level they are at to pull together a deposit.
“We are looking at how we can accelerate the scheme. We are looking at how we can redevelop some of our sites, which extend beyond the footprint of the branch itself. In Sawston, for example, we own a chunk of land between the branch and the car park.
“We’ve been refurbishing our stores for a few years now but now we’re looking at how we can have some grander ambitions and create some starter properties or some high-quality apartments.
“My ambition in the next five years or so is to get our Rent to Home scheme up to something like 20 to 25 properties. If we do that, that’s a portfolio that is making a difference. But we’ve got to start somewhere and we’ve taken it from zero to seven.
“We’ve been through the full cycle now – seeing people benefit from the 70 per cent rent back and then buying their own property with it.”
And The Cambridge would be happy to share all that it has learned about the scheme should other community-spirited businesses be interested in joining or adding their property to the scheme.
“The more the merrier,” said Peter.
The mutual’s staff will celebrate the 175th birthday when they come together next Tuesday (28 January) for a business conference at Newmarket Racecourses.
“We are closing all of our stores in the afternoon so that all of our people can get together in the same place,” said Peter.
“We shall take the opportunity to do some business and round off the day with a birthday cake and toast The Cambridge Building Society’s 175 years.”
Some of its employees have been there for an impressive number of those years. The longest-serving individual is Alison Dover, who works in the Bar Hill branch and has been with The Cambridge since 1979.
“To start at the start of your career and devote that chunk of your career to one organisation is special and something you don’t see much these days. And we have a couple of people who aren’t too far behind,” said Peter, who has been CEO for five years and joined the board in 2016.
Last year, his efforts earned him the inaugural CEO of the Year title at the Cambridge Independent Business Awards, where The Cambridge also won Employer of the Year.
“I took over as CEO just before the pandemic,” he said. “I remember Stephen Mitcham, the outgoing CEO, said to me ‘I wish I was you Peter, because I took over at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. You’re taking over in very straightforward times – you’ve nothing to worry about! Then there were some reports of a virus breaking out…
“But crises bring people together and this organisation responded really well to the pandemic. I like to think that the cultural strength we built in 2020-21 is what’s held us in good stead in the years since.”
With customer satisfaction at a five-year high, several record years under its belt and a mortgage book that has grown to more than £1.5billion, there is every chance it will continue to thrive.
