In Brief: Building society reports record mortgage lending; Gin distillery in fine fettle with racecourse deal; and more

Tipton & Coseley Building Society has announced record annual mortgage lending figures for 2018 of £84m, an increase of over 45% on the previous year.

The Tipton says it invested in its business development capability in 2018 to support broker and direct customer sales. In May 2018, the Tipton appointed Cammy Amaira as its director of sales and marketing. This was followed by the appointment of Paul Sawford as business development manager (BDM) for the London and South East England region. Other BDM appointments are planned for 2019.

Richard Newton, chief executive, said: “We are focused on enabling people to own their home at all stages of life and during 2018 our increase in lending has been supported by us launching new mortgage products which have been designed to meet the needs of customers at different stages of their life. This includes a 100% mortgage product for first-time buyers, with family assistance, as well as mortgages for the self-employed and for those customers who are retired. We were the first Building Society to offer a Retirement Interest Only (RIO) mortgage throughout England and Wales and we now lend on retirement properties too.

The Society has also launched a mortgage for holiday homes which allows short-term letting via Airbnb. With this mortgage the Tipton were one of the first lenders to allow Airbnb letting on a residential property for an unlimited number of days per year.”

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Nelson’s Gin Distillery, based in Staffordshire, has announced a sponsorship deal with Uttoxeter Racecourse.

Nelson’s Gin kicked off the partnership with sponsorship of the Conditional Jockey’s Handicap Hurdle as part of the Local’s Raceday last month.

On the day, Greg Kimber, sales director of Nelson’s Gin presented the winners of the Nelson’s Gin Distillery Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, won by The Crazed Moon owned by Mark Dunphy, raced under jockey Jason Dixon for trainer Henry Olivier.

Through the course of 2019 Uttoxeter Racecourse will be stocking Nelson’s Rhubarb and Custard gin, limited-edition Raspberry gin and the London Dry gin.

Kimber said: “we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Uttoxeter Racecourse. Nelson’s Gin receives a tremendous amount of support from Uttoxeter residents, and to be able to join them at these prestigious events lets us show our in being such an integral part of the Uttoxeter community. It’s a great opportunity to share our range of fantastic gins with visitors to the racecourse as well as some exciting new products we have in the pipeline… watch this space.”
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A new group has been launched in the Midlands to support women who work in the criminal law as concerns grow over the number of women who are leaving the profession.

Women in Criminal Law (WICL), the brainchild of Katy Thorne QC, a criminal barrister based in London, was launched in London last year, with the new Midland branch now under way.

Its aim is to encourage and empower working women across the criminal justice system and help break down barriers to their success by providing advice, training, mentoring and support.

Michelle Heeley QC, of No5 Barristers’ Chambers Birmingham office and Mary Prior QC, of The 36 Group, helped to form the Midlands branch of the group.

The organisation is open to all women who work in the criminal law, from paralegals and chartered legal executives to the senior judiciary, from caseworkers to barristers’ clerks. Barristers and solicitors make up a large part of the membership and come from both prosecution and defence sides of the profession, and work in the publicly and privately-funded sectors.