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Equity Release Council needs to lead consumer PR charge – poll

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  • 20/06/2013
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Equity Release Council needs to lead consumer PR charge – poll
The Equity Release Council should target the media and consumers in order to increase knowledge and understanding of equity release products, our latest poll has found.

As the council enters its second year, the Mortgage Solutions People’s Poll asked what the trade body should be concentrating its energy on.

Over three-quarters (77%) of respondents said that the council should be trying to influence the media and consumers to boost the image of equity release. Just 23% felt that it should be spending its time attempting to influence policymakers.

“Open debate is exactly what is needed to build on this and educate both consumers and policymakers about the value of equity release,” Nigel Waterson, chairman of the Equity Release Council, told Mortgage Solutions.

“Despite recent progress there is great untapped potential in the nation’s housing wealth. We feel the industry continues to exist in a ‘knowledge and policy vacuum’, which holds people back from considering equity release products alongside other options for funding retirement.

“Reaching out to consumers is a key part of the council’s work to encourage greater understanding of the modern equity release industry and the safeguards it offers. At the same time, supporting our ageing population is an issue of national importance and policymakers play a key role in shaping consumer opinion.

“The government is searching for ways to help people pay for their retirement and care needs without overstretching the public purse. We have a responsibility to ensure equity release is among the solutions it promotes, and we are committed to pushing government to come off the fence in this respect.”

Age Partnership technical manager Simon Chalk, writing in a blog for Mortgage Solutions, said: “The council (nee SHIP) has irrefutably delivered in consumer protection with product safeguards unequalled by any other area of financial services and more is being done as I can testify from my position on the Adviser Standards Working Group.

“Trade bodies have another function; lobbying those of influence in matters affecting the trade. With equity release having a huge beneficial impact socially, notably more so in austere times, it’s logical that our trade body should adopt a charm offensive with policymakers.

“Yet politicians don’t enjoy wide public trust and remain prone to Westminster’s revolving doors, so could members’ funding be better deployed in other areas such as educating media and consumers?”

Speaking at the Retirement Planning Summit, Waterson later defended the industry against claims that its products are pricing consumers out of the market and explained why lenders needed to charge more to protect consumers.

“Providers of equity release are unique in protecting consumers from ever falling into negative equity,” he said. “To protect the customer, equity release providers take on a higher level of risk which is exactly why the available rates for lifetime mortgages are slightly higher than typical homeowner mortgages.”

The former MP then reiterated claims that household names would make a move into the industry later this year.

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