News & Views

‘Financial inclusion’ should help people withstand financial shocks, not deepen them. Yet the current agenda focuses overwhelmingly on increasing access to credit per se, rather than on credit that people can genuinely afford.

Dr Ana Rita Pena looks at the emerging direction of the Warm Homes Fund following the Government’s recent call for evidence. To work for lower-to-middle income households, Innovative Finance models need to reduce risk, build in trusted advice, and connect to wider delivery models such as property-linked finance and neighbourhood-based schemes.

In our response to the FCA’s consultation on credit advertising, we warn against proposals to weaken representative APR rules and cost disclosure protections.

In recent weeks, Ministers have set out new measures to help people struggling with the cost of living – including free bus travel for children and targeted reductions in food tariffs. But the Financial Services and Markets Bill that has recently been laid before Parliament points in a very different, and concerning, direction. Clause 8 of the Bill would upend vital protections for borrowers, and we call for it to be scrapped.