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In 1884 a small group of Coventry citizens banded together to help fund housing in a rapidly-growing city while giving people of all classes a safe and secure home for their savings. The Coventry Permanent Economic Building Society was the largest in the area by the beginning of the First World War. Over the last 137 years it has grown to become the UK's second largest building society, with more than 1.8 million members from all over the country.
The Coventry-based mutual is owned by members and run on their behalf and driven by its ethos of doing what's right for its members, staff and the neighbourhoods it serves. This includes not having sales targets, giving staff more than 20,000 hours of paid leave to balance work and home schooling through the pandemic and supporting communities through fundraising, donations and volunteering.
The Society sponsored a Christmas themed t-shirt to support its local hospital Superheroes fundraising campaign, which went viral after it was worn by Margaret Keenan, the first person in the world to receive a Covid vaccine. It also provided laptops, stationary packs and books to help children with home schooling during the pandemic and donated £35,000 to support a helpline for those in financial difficulty.
The for profit organisation wants its 2,500 plus staff working across its head office and 69 branches in England and south east Wales to grow with it through training and development programmes and promotion opportunities with over 40% of roles filled internally each year.
