The Cumberland Building Society has been crowned the best in Britain for the second year running.

The Carlisle-based mutual won ‘best regional building society’ at the Mortgage Finance Gazette Awards 2016 at Vinopolis in London.

The title is awarded to the building society that has offered the most consistently competitive mortgage rates over a year. 

It is the fourth time in seven years that the Cumberland has won, following its successes in 2010, 2012 and 2015.

The society also won the ‘community services – medium-sized lenders’ award in recognition of its support of voluntary and charitable organisations.

The judges praised the Cumberland for its “diversity, local sponsorship and encouraging staff involvement”.

They added: “The Cumberland allows its branches to be used to support local good causes in practical ways such as giving window and floor space.”

And the society was a highly commended runner-up in the ‘best overall lender’, ‘customer service/treating customers fairly – lenders’ and ‘best anti-fraud service’ categories.

David Stewart, manager of the Cumberland’s Carlisle city centre branches, said: “We are delighted to be named ‘best regional building society’ again.

“The award is based on the actual cost of a mortgage rather than the headline rate, so it recognises the most competitive mortgage provider.”