Key points discussed during the December Council Meeting have been detailed below. For full details of minutes and slides please click on the relevant documents in the documents area to the right of this page or the document library.
The Council will be building on it’s successes of 2016 with its 2017 media profile
- The volume of business news releases will increase – capitalising on new entrants into the market, consultation responses and new partnerships & initiatives.
- The process for collecting, collating and reporting market data will be optimised to build a single, comprehensive dataset, which will improve its usefulness.
- The annual member survey will be relaunched, to help inform The Council’s work
- Nigel Waterson’s media relationship programme will continue to grow, to build on growing interest from a broad range of titles.
- The Council will also continue to build relationships with key consumer titles like MoneySavingExpert and influencers like Louise Overton of the University of Birmingham – a leading academic on equity release who will help produce a white paper in the new year.
Next Steps
We have identified the following public affairs objectives as our focus over the next 12 months:
- Make use of The Council’s existing relationships across Parliament and government to continue to highlight where equity release can support policy objectives.
- Continue to advocate for a single departmental home for equity release and work towards a more friendly regulatory environment.
- Where necessary, build contacts with key figures in the new government where The Council does not already have established relationships.
- Continue to highlight the importance of housing equity in financial guidance and advice on later life.
- Understand and shape the post-Brexit environment for equity release, and ensure The Council’s public affairs strategy complements work done on regulatory issues stemming from Brexit.
- Continue to manage Council responses to key consultations.
A new Technical Working Group
The TWG has been established to consider how the KFI could best be amended so that it is fit for purpose and capable of illustrating the new range of ER products now on the market. The first meeting was held on Dec 21st 2016 and chaired by Chris Buchanan of LGHF.
