Leasing brokers are playing an increasingly important role in vehicle finance, says the BVRLA, with the sector growing 20% last year.

The association recently conducted its first survey of leasing broker activity, which showed that the channel has seen a 30% increase in fleet size over the past two years.

Key funders reported that they had a total of 161,775 broker-originated vehicles on contract in 2014, an increase of 20% on the year before and 30% on 2012 levels.

The broker car lease fleet reached 119,036 units in 2014. Contract hire cars made up the largest portion, having grown to 73,140, up 15% on the previous year.

The fastest growing sector was personal contract hire, where the fleet size rose by 39% to 35,242 cars.

For commercial vehicles, van leasing volumes rose 19% to 42,739 units in 2014, driven by growth in contract hire (+14%) and finance lease (+27%) products.

Mike Potter, chairman of the BVRLA’s leasing broker committee, said: “Our sector is going from strength to strength and has a lot to be proud of.

“We are converting a whole new generation of consumers and businesses to the benefits of low-risk, fixed-cost motoring.”