Skipton to take over UK’s oldest building society Chesham

The UK's oldest building society Chesham is to be swallowed up by its much larger rival Skipton.

Both societies denied that today's announcement of a merger was a rescue of Chesham and pointed out its members will be asked to vote on the deal.

Chesham, founded in 1845, has just three branches in the London commuter belt, in Chesham, Aylesbury and Little Chalfont.

It has assets of £230 million, down £27 million on a year ago, and 21,000 members — compared with Skipton's £15.6 billion of assets and 830,000 members. Skipton is the country's fourth-largest building society while Chesham is 38th.

Chesham's chief executive, Paul Kilbride, said there were "clear benefits of being part of a larger building society with broader funding and a larger capital base".

Half a dozen building societies have been taken over or merged with larger rivals in the past couple of years. Today's move takes the remaining number of societies down to 51.