Welcome to the Autumn 2022 edition of the Equity Release Council’s newsletter.
Let me start by welcoming Mike Hughes and Barry Meeks, as the Council’s first independent non-executive directors following our governance review and re-structure. This is a very exciting development for the Council, which reflects modern governance best practice while creating more opportunities for members to have their voices heard in the board’s planning and decision-making. To hear more from Barry and Mike please click here.
The publication of this newsletter also follows the release of the Council’s quarterly market data. While the industry enjoyed a record quarter with customers increasing above 13,000 for the first time, we must now adjust to the headwinds of higher interest rates and increased cost-of-living pressures, noted by industry experts. I am aware that as an industry, we all recognise the challenges facing our customers at this time and I would encourage you to watch our recent vulnerability webinar, with speakers from Legal & General Home Finance and StepChange Debt Charity. It is extremely relevant for these times. Please click here to visit our webinar page.
To reflect the challenges facing our members, the Council has announced how it will be supporting members during 2023, which you can read about again here. We also hosted a webinar with specialist brokers UK Global, which is offering eligible adviser-members preferential rates on their professional indemnity in recognition of the Council’s standards, which also feels like a timely initiative. Please do look at our member site to catch up with all webinars. Over 1000 members have registered to watch our last six webinars – with 720 attending!
We are also working to support our members to prepare for the Consumer Duty, where we will provide comprehensive guidance for providers and advisers to help address key considerations when developing a fair value framework and completing a fair value assessment. We hope to let you know more soon.
I thought it was also helpful to share the following statistics: this year one in three media articles highlight the Council’s standards with one in four consumer-facing articles calling on readers to use Council members. And, on the Council’s website, there are now over 900 weekly unique views of our ‘find a member’ section! It is great that the value of the Council’s standards are so widely recognised.
There is a great deal we can be proud of as an industry. Elsewhere, in this edition, you can read about Rachel East from Key, who won a prestigious industry award, who shares details of her working week. We also hear from Tandi Fellowes, a mortgage and protection advisor, who was determined not to let spray foam spoil her client’s chances of rebroking. Meanwhile, Emma Harvey from the Green Finance Institute (GFI) shares an innovative overseas financial solution being considered for the UK. Separately we are working closely with the GFI and other trade associations with a new Lenders Handbook.
We also share some exclusive member-only Council updates, including the latest news from Westminster, our media updates and a range of partnership opportunities for members, which I would encourage you strongly to read and look forward to your support!
The Council is once again sponsoring the Equity Release Awards so for a look at the finalists and some of the winners of some other awards ceremonies click here. You will of course be hearing more from myself and my Council colleagues before the final, in January, but I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible there.
Finally, I would like to send my thanks to Chris Pond, Chair of our Standards Board and Liz Barclay and Jim Dredge – independent consultants to the Standards Board. Their tenure comes to an end, and I would like to send thanks to them on behalf of all our membership for their contribution, service and expertise in helping the Council evolve our standards into the ‘gold standard’ for all later life based property lending. It has been a privilege to work with you and your hard work and commitment to our sector is hugely appreciated. We look forward to staying in touch!
Jim Boyd, CEO.
