April Mortgages has made three new appointments after what it described as a "standout" year in 2025. Lewis Chinyou-Robinson has been appointed as national account manager and will responsible for deepening partnerships with key distributors and driving service excellence. He joined the firm in December 2024 within operations. Lucy Hughes and Mark Brown have also joined the lender as telephone business development managers, to expand its adviser support function and boost its capacity. It comes after April introduced a no deposit 100% LTV mortgage, expanded into new build lending and introduced income stretches of up to seven times loan-to-income.

Pepper Money has announced a series of enhancements to its buy-to-let mortgage offering, including rate reductions across its two- and five-year fixed products and expanded criteria for HMOs. The specialist mortgage lender will now support HMOs on properties with an EPC rating of D or E, broadening eligibility beyond the existing A to C requirement. Alongside the criteria update, Pepper Money has reduced rates by up to 25 bps on two-year products and up to 15 bps on five-year fixes. Furthermore, the lender has introduced its lowest two- and five-year rates of 4.44% up to 70% LTV with a 7% completion fee.

Dudley Building Society has launched three new five-year fixed mortgage products, cutting rates by between 15 and 50 bps across its core residential and recently launched skilled worker visa range. The society said its updated range intends to support brokers placing both straightforward and more complex cases, with manual underwriting, flexible structures and clear criteria helping reduce friction through the application process. As a result, its skilled worked visa fix starts from 5.55% at 90%. Its residential fixes at 75% and 90% LTV now start from 5.10% and 5.20% respectively. All products come with a £999 arrangement fee and support loan sizes from £25,000, up to £1.5m for skilled worker visa cases and £1m on residential applications.

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