BestAdvice fires the questions at Laura Sneddon, head of mortgage sales and distribution, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society.
BestAdvice (BA): Tell us about the business you represent and your role there.
Laura Sneddon (LS): I’m the head of mortgage sales and distribution at Hinckley & Rugby for Intermediaries, a flexible lender working with brokers from across the UK. I oversee our external and internal sales team and help build relationships with our intermediary partners. It’s my job to try to understand what their needs are and what their clients’ needs are, and to ensure our products and services reflect this.
For years, Hinckley & Rugby has been a popular choice for borrowers with more complex or unusual income streams. Our ‘Flex’ mortgage range reflects the realities of people’s working lives today, be it multiple income streams or a less than perfect credit history. Our manual approach to underwriting means we can also consider cases that fall outside our already flexible criteria. We like to think we are providing a flexible service but with the values and customer-centric ethos you’d expect from a building society.
BA: What’s your career journey been and what do you most enjoy about working in the mortgage industry?
LS: I’ve worked in the mortgage industry for 20 years, largely with specialist lenders, such as Together, The Mortgage Lender, and Masthaven, though I’ve also had experience on the broking and commercial funding side. I joined Hinckley & Rugby just over a year ago to help it develop its flexible lending capabilities. For me, the one thing I love about this job is being able to solve problems. This might be taking a case a broker is having difficulty placing and coming up with a lending solution; or it could be adapting our products to ensure they continue to meet the needs of borrowers today.
BA: What do you think the biggest challenges are in the mortgage industry today?
LS: Affordability is clearly a challenge across the industry, but we can see particular issues for first-time buyers and older homeowners. In many ways these reflect changes to working patterns and wider demographics — and the fact that much of the mortgage market has not kept up with these changes. People are living longer, working longer, and often need mortgages into their 60s and beyond. At the other end of the scale, in recent years it has become increasingly difficult for first-time buyers to get a toe on the housing ladder.
At the start of millennium people might have been buying their first flat in their early 20s, today, they might be well into their 30s and potentially already have a family. So it’s not just the age profile of first-time buyers that is changing but the type of property they need. With rents rising it is difficult to save for a deposit. I think the challenge for policymakers as well as the mortgage industry is to come up with innovative product to help these borrowers.
BA: What is the biggest barrier to success faced by brokers this year and how can they overcome it?
LS: Business is certainly challenging for brokers at the moment, with a cut in interest rates being far slower to materialise than was expected at the start of the year. As a result, many clients are no doubt sitting tight, unsure whether to lock into a fixed rate now or wait a month or two to see if they can secure a cheaper deal. For brokers, it can pay to develop their relationships with lenders to see how they can help with more difficult-to-place cases as well as looking at where they can add value, through protection sales, for example.
BA: What more can Westminster politicians do to support the industry? is the government doing enough to support the sector?
LS: Many of the current challenges in the industry come back to one fundamental problem: a distinct lack of housing supply. It would be great to see someone tackle this problem and get serious about building new homes. We have had promises from politicians of all parties in recent years; it would be good to see this translate into action on this issue. But I think it’s important that we also look at where we are planning to build these new homes. We hear less about this from politicians. We need new homes, but these need to be in areas where there are jobs and employment, or there needs to be suitable investment into these areas to create these jobs and provide the required infrastructure.
BA: What is the one business lesson from your own career that you might wish to share?
LS: Don’t limit yourself: think big and be ambitious about what you can achieve. It is certainly what I’d tell my 20-year-old self. Don’t let that self-doubt stop you from going for that promotion or job opportunity – you’ve nothing to lose. As my career has progressed, I’ve become more confident about my own skills and now know I deserve a place at the table.
BA: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen over the time you’ve worked in the mortgage industry?
LS: The industry is now more diverse and better for it. There were far fewer women when I joined 20 years ago. I was a Geordie based on the South Coast, so I probably stood out like a sore thumb! But I am glad to see it is far more inclusive; it is no longer an old boys’ network when it comes to securing jobs and opportunities. It’s a great industry to work in and one I’m proud to be part of.
