This makes the payout process far cheaper

This makes the payout process far cheaper.It also makes it far more likely that the B&B's membership will vote to approve the management's conversion plans next summer. The conversion of Alliance & Leicester was also a flat payout.From the management's view, such flat schemes are attractive. They are far simpler to administer than trying to calculate proportionate payments for millions of members. The first society conversion, the Abbey National in 1989, featured a flat structure - everyone got pounds 180 regardless whether they had pounds 100 or pounds 1m. This flat distribution is in stark contrast to the payouts in the Halifax and Woolwich conversions, where savers with larger amounts in their accounts got proportionately more than smaller savers.The B&B plan will reward long-standing, loyal customers no better than the most recently joined carpetbaggers But flat distributions are nothing new. Out went more than 100 years of history, in came the highly paid City advisers to put together a stockmarket flotation. Last week the B&B published the outlines of its plans to pay windfalls to members when it converts to plc status next year.The plan is for a "flat" share distribution scheme, where borrowers and savers will all get the same amount of shares in the new bank, regardless of the size of their respective mortgages and accounts.At first sight this may seem unfair.

The point is, up until the B&B's members voted to convert to plc status last April, the society's management, under chief executive Christopher Rodrigues, were vociferous, adamant champions of staying mutual. Ditching mutual status to turn the B&B into a bank would be tantamount to selling a priceless family heirloom for a mess of potage, said Rodrigues and co. But once the vote to convert came through, the management did a 180- degree turn. For sale at pounds 185,000 from Clarke & Simpson (01728 724200).. NO ONE is so vehemently anti-smoking as an ex-smoker. The same could be said for former champions of mutuality, although I wouldn't want to stretch the comparison too far between the management of the Bradford & Bingley and smoking. But Mayfield, a four-bedroom cottage near Woodbridge, Suffolk, could well repay any love and attention spent on it.

Originally three cottages, with the 1960s/70s additions of a garden store and workshop, it has a large drawing room and dining room with beams and part-panelled walls, but needs a bathroom or two upstairs. HOME OF THE WEEK THE WIRING needs attention, a new kitchen would be a good idea, and outside, the garden plants are fighting for space with an overgrown paddock and orchard. This usually costs pounds 29.50 but Independent readers can buy one for pounds 20, including postage.ProShare: 0171-394 5200, or on the Internet at www.proshare .uk. What are the advantages of joining an investment club?A: Many members of investment clubs have private portfolios - one does not exclude the other - and they believe club membership makes them better investors by increasing their contacts and their "Circle of Competence".For more information, ProShare provides a comprehensive manual which details how to set up and run an investment club.