Demsa

General The rising cost-of-living continues to dominate the headlines along with the Tory leadership elections and the heatwave. The recent news has also highlighted the rise in bogus insurance claims. According to ONS, the largest upward contributions to the annual CPIH inflation rate in June 2022 came from housing and household services (principally from electricity, gas and other fuels and owner occupiers' housing costs) and transport (principally from motor fuels). Aside from fuel, food and non-alcoholic beverage prices have risen… Read more

General update The Tory leadership race is dominating the news along with the ‘Red Heat’ warning for the start of next week. Richard Fuller replaced John Glen as Economic Secretary at HM Treasury on 8 July 2022 and the SDRP team at HM Treasury has advised that this may impact progress on the SDRP consultation where the new minister and the new PM may want to review the draft regulations. HM Treasury continues to encourage firms to contribute to the… Read more

It will be interesting to see what the political shake up will have on the sustainability of various government initiatives to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and a number of reforms promised in the Queen’s speech. Whether some ministers, like ‘Levelling Up’, return under new leaderships remains to be seen. The Chancellor’s role is going to be critical in this and the consistency of policy thinking and execution.    Rising energy costs continue to loom large and Anjam Sohail, Director of… Read more

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/breathing-spaces-by-location-age-and-money-advisor-organisation-4-may-2021-to-30-april-2022 SDRP consultation update – possible webinar before consultation deadline – statement of interest I have circulated the slides and questions from the HM Treasury open forum event on 21 June 2022 and we now have a ‘by invitation’ event on 5 July 2022 with a follow-up on 12 July 2022. There is then a ‘deep dive’ event later in July (between 19-21 July). I have circulated some of the HM Treasury questions for debt management firms to refresh their… Read more

FCA registration numbers The FCA is planning a move to seven-digit FRNs and PRNs for all newly registered firms and funds. Firms that have previously been allocated a six-digit FRN or PRN will keep that number. They won’t change. Seven-digit numbers will start to be allocated for new applications and notifications once our six-digit range is exhausted. They haven’t fixed a date for when this will happen, but state that they are on track to make the necessary changes to… Read more

General update Bank of England increases base rate to 1.25% On the day that the FCA issued their ‘Dear CEO’ letter to over 3,500 lenders, the Bank of England announced that interest rates would rise to 1.25%. At its meeting ending on 15 June 2022, the MPC voted by a majority of 6-3 to increase Bank Rate by 0.25%, to 1.25%. Those members in the minority preferred to increase Bank Rate by 0.5%, to 1.5%. I think most of us… Read more