So that is it, a General Election has been called in the UK.
Ahead of us we now have 6 weeks of campaign, wall-to-wall TV coverage, lots of promises and being told how things will be so much better if only we vote a certain way on July 4th.
Whatever your political views, we now know one thing that will not happen in the next few weeks… that is much progress on regulation or related matters. We have entered a state of purdah, the pre-election period, and a time of heightened sensitivity. During this time there is care to ensure official resources are not used or seen to be used to influence the election.
Kick-off
Day-to-day activities will of course continue, but items such as the release of new studies, reports, and even regulatory engagement at meetings or conferences will be curtailed. Progress on this will slow to a stop.
Only last week we were chatting precisely about this possibility at the Consumer Duty Services event. It was flagged as a reason why the Insolvency Service may have to delay the release of their report into IVA misselling, something that Kevin Still commented he had seen the impact of before.
With hindsight, it was almost prophetic… although a good job it wasn’t a week later as some of the attendees would in all likelihood not have even been there.
Group Stage
During this period it is all too easy to get distracted, get caught in the drama, and wistfully think of the future, whilst waiting for the machinery of government to restart. For any other procrastinators out there, it is a wonderful reason to put things off… er hum creating time to watch the Euros… never.
But of course, in reality, the world does not stop and, as Chris Leslie from the Credit Services Association was super quick to point out yesterday, ‘it is unlikely that financial services policy and regulation will feature significantly during the contest’, although, of course, the cost of living will.
Regulatory change happens slowly and much of the infrastructure, themes, and activity we have now, we will still have to do after the election… thinking Consumer Duty here… there is still lots to do.
Avoid Offside
So many times, it feels like we are on the back foot with regulatory change, waiting for announcements, often rushing to meet implementation deadlines, while all the time more new stuff is coming in. It is exhausting.
Yet this pre-election period, the government slowdown, could give us a short window to get in front of events. General it is always better to be proactive rather than reactive, and maybe this is our opportunity to focus on the now, a breather to get done what we need to get done.
Enjoy the final
That is of course, if we don’t get sucked into the impending drama on TV… (politics of football, take your pick)… good luck with that everyone.
Have a good rest of the week.
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