Lloyds TSB Autolease is reporting a two-fold surge in businesses looking for sale and leaseback agreements.

During November and December last year, the company has produced a record number of quotes and purchased £10 million worth of company-owned vehicles on a sale and leaseback basis.

Colin Thornton, channel sales director said: “Sale and leaseback is still a fairly small proportion of our overall business, but it’s definitely one of the fastest growing.

Sale and leaseback is a way to remove the risk of ownership and release cash.

“There’s a real appetite for it from the market and we’re seeing more referrals coming through from our parent bank, which demonstrates that fleet savings are firmly on the boardroom agenda,” said Mr Thornton.

RCT Homes recently opted for a sale and leaseback agreement on its fleet of 60 commercial vehicles.

Fleet administration and vehicle sourcing and replacement were transferred to Lloyds TSB Autolease, with the vehicles moving onto a contract hire agreement.

At the end of a 16-month period, a new fleet will be introduced under a renewed contract hire agreement.

RCT Homes resources director, Malcolm Wilson, explained: “The fleet we inherited from a local council was unsuitable for our purposes in a number of areas, and we wanted to explore a cost-effective way in which we could fast-track the replacement of these vehicles with ones more fit–for-purpose.

“Using sale and leaseback was an obvious choice.”