This event has now taken place but you can watch the video recording of it through our Youtube Channel, get to it by clicking the button below
When
Wednesday, May 19th from 6pm to 8pm UK timeWhere
Online symposium via Zoom.Format
There'll be a great line-up of speakers plus ample scope for discussion and debate.Why you should attend
The Transparency Task Force is firmly of the view that the “mortgage prisoners” are being treated in a grotesquely unfair way. We hold this view because they are paying an enormous price for the government’s decision to sell the mortgage book that they were part of without carrying out sufficient checks on how fairly the mortgage holders would be treated by the organisations that became the controllers of the mortgage books.
We imagine that a great deal of money has been made by many people as a consequence of the mortgage book sales and we see no justification for the government’s failure to do all it can to defend the interest of completely innocent victims of financial exploitation.
This symposium will provide a brief history of the mortgage prisoner scandal. It will cover everything from what happened, the role Government have played and the detriment it has caused and continues to cause the 250k families trapped paying extortionate interest on their mortgages. We will discuss the regulatory changes introduced by the FCA to date and how this has helped, the Standard Variable Rate (SVR) cap and why it was necessary, and what more can be done by exploring ideas for workable solutions.
It will hopefully shine a bright light on what has really been happening to mortgage prisoners, and the unjustifiably unfair way in which they have been treated.
We asked all attendees 2 questions:
- What is your main motivation for wanting to attend this particular event?
- Are there any particular issues, ideas or questions that you want the event to cover?
You can see a collection of some of the many answer we received by clicking the button below:
Here's the programme and timings so far...
—————————————-6:00pm BST—————————————-
Welcome to the symposium, introductions and initial exploration of the main issues; by
Andy Agathangelou
Founder, Transparency Task Force; Governor, Pensions Policy Institute; Chair, Secretariat Committee, APPG on Pension Scams; Chair, Secretariat Committee, APPG on Personal Banking and Fairer Financial Services; Chair of the Violation Tracker UK Advisory Board
—————————————-6:10pm BST—————————————-
Pre-recorded statement from
Martin Lewis OBE
Founder & Executive Chair, Money Saving Expert
Journalist; TV and radio presenter; Newspaper Columnist; Charity Founder; Author
—————————————-6:15pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #1, for 5 minutes
Rachel Neale
Lead Campaigner, UK Mortgage Prisoners
—————————————-6:20pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #2, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Kevin Hollinrake MP
MP for Thirsk and Malton
Vice-chair, APPG on Mortgage Prisoners
Co-chair, APPG on Fair Business Banking
&
Seema Malhotra MP
MP for Feltham and Heston
Co-chair, APPG on Mortgage Prisoners
—————————————-6:35pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #3, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Professor Sharon Collard
Professor of Personal Finance and Research Director, University of Bristol Personal Finance Research Centre
—————————————-6:50pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #4, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Olivia Selley
Associate, Harcus Parker
&
Edward Argles
Trainee Solicitor, Harcus Parker
—————————————-7:05pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #5, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Cat McShane
Producer/Director & Journalist
“Trapped by my mortgage”, Panorama
—————————————-7:20pm BST—————————————-
Presentation #6, for 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A/Discussion by
Andrew Montlake
Managing Director, Coreco Mortgage Brokers
Host, The Property Show Podcast
—————————————-7:35pm BST—————————————-
The “Just a minute”-round
Inspired by the BBC Radio 4 programme, we have asked a selection of our attendees to spend just a minute sharing their thoughts on what has been covered during the symposium. But unlike the Radio 4 programme our speakers won’t be penalised for hesitation, repetition or deviation!
Speakers:
Mark Bishop
Leader Connaught Action Group
—————————————-7:40pm BST—————————————-
General discussion and Q&A, 15 minutes
—————————————-7:55pm BST—————————————-
Final conclusions; and suggested next steps and close to the formal proceedings.
However, for those that want it…
8:00pm BST until 108:30pm BST
….informal, unstructured networking and informal conversation; a “fireside chat”
___________________________________________________________________
*The programme will continuously evolve so is subject to change.
Rachel Neale
Lead Campaigner, UK Mortgage Prisoners
Rachel first became involved with mortgage prisoners when she was asked to be filmed for the Panorama documentary “Trapped by my mortgage”. From then she began to lead the campaign through the Facebook group. Her mortgage is held with Landmark.
She has worked hard to bring change to those that are trapped after the 2008 financial crash and now work with different organisations to bring mortgage prisoners support for mental health and debt. She works on case studies against those unregulated firms and banks who treat their members unfairly.
She is the chair on the committee at Harcus Parker for the group litigation. They have helped set up the APPG for Mortgage Prisoners in parliament and work closely to bring legislation change.
Rachel also sits as a stakeholder for UK Mortgage Prisoners on the solutions group as a spokesperson. She has spoken in parliament at the mortgage prisoners debate held on 6th June 2020.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kevin Hollinrake MP
MP for Thirsk and Malton
Co-chair, APPG on Mortgage Prisoners
Kevin is a British Conservative politician and businessman. He has been the MP for Thirsk and Malton since 2015.
He started Hunters Estate Agents in 1992, co-founding the business with John Waterhouse, and it is now one of the most successful and fastest-growing estate agencies in the UK. Hunters have over 200 branches nationwide including 30 in Greater London with gross turnover in excess of £40m and approximately 1000 people employed throughout the network.
Kevin has been in property for more than 30 years, but after studying physics at Sheffield Hallam University he set up various businesses. “I sold everything from army surplus to mobile phones. At that time it seemed the best way to make a living.”
Then he joined Prudential, at the time the largest estate agency in Britain as a branch manager, initially in Haxby and later in Burnley, Lancs.
Five years later, in 1992, he and his original founding partner, John Waterhouse, started Hunters in Goodramgate.
Kevin was elected as the MP for Thirsk and Malton on 7th May 2015. In July 2016 he was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Lidington MP, Leader of the House of Commons.
In June 2017 he was re-elected as MP for Thirsk and Malton and in July he became PPS to the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In July 2019, he became PPS to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Kevin was re-elected for the third time as the MP for Thirsk and Malton in December 2019.
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Seema Malhotra MP
MP for Feltham and Heston
Co-chair, APPG on Mortgage Prisoners
Bio to follow
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Professor Sharon Collard
Research Director, University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre
Professor Sharon Collard is Research Director at the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre. Her research explores the intersections between vulnerability and personal finance. The Centre’s work includes addressing the Poverty Premium faced by low-income households; and a programme of work on how debt collectors, lenders and advisers identify and treat consumers in vulnerable circumstances.
Sharon is also a Research Affiliate at the University of Sydney; a member of the UK Financial Services Consumer Panel, a statutory panel that represents the interests of consumers in the development of policy for the regulation of financial services; the UK Financial Inclusion Commission; the government’s Financial Inclusion Policy Forum; and is on the Council of the Pensions Policy Institute.
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Olivia Selley
Associate, Harcus Parker
Olivia qualified as a solicitor in September 2019 and joined Harcus Parker in May 2020. Whilst training Olivia gained experience in corporate transactions and undertook contentious seats in Employment, Construction, and Insurance during which she mainly represented claimants. Since joining Harcus Parker Olivia has been heavily involved in the mortgage prisoner case, working as the lead Associate, under the supervision of Damon Parker, the firm’s managing Partner. Amongst other things, Olivia is responsible for coordinating the claim strategy with the activities of the Mortgage Prisoner Campaign Group.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Edward Argles
Trainee Solicitor, Harcus Parker
Edward read History at the University of Oxford, graduating in 2015, before moving on to complete the Graduate Diploma in Law at BPP in London in 2016. He is currently a trainee solicitor at Harcus Parker. Edward has been working on the mortgage prisoner legal case since 2019, under the supervision of the firm’s managing partner, Damon Parker. He has been involved closely in helping to develop the legal theory behind the case and in investigating the history (and causes) of the mortgage prisoner problem.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cat McShane
Producer/Director & Journalist
Cat is a filmmaker and journalist whose BBC Panorama investigation into the treatment of hundreds of thousands of ex-Northern Rock mortgage holders was nominated for the prestigious Harold Wincott award and led to the creation of an APPG on Mortgage Prisoners and a group legal challenge. She initially trained as a finance reporter with Euromoney before moving into programme-making. Named a director of the future by Channel 4 early in her career, she has also written for the Observer. This cross-platform work saw her named a Woman of the Future, an award for high-achieving women under 35.
Cat spent 2020 at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism producing work on the housing crisis and precarious work, including an investigation into the treatment of agency workers at Amazon. She is currently producing short films for BBC Storyworks, part of BBC Studios.
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Andrew Montlake
Co-Host, The Property Show Podcast
A Finance professional with over 25 years of industry experience, Andrew started in mortgages in 1994. He is one of only two people to have won the coveted Mortgage Personality of the Year Award at the Mortgage Strategy Awards twice.
In 2009 Andrew was a founder of Coreco, responsible for growing the brand, marketing and communications. He was made MD in 2019 focussing on the overall vision, strategy, and culture of the company.
As Coreco’s media spokesperson Andrew can often be seen or heard on TV and radio as well as regularly commenting in the national, local and trade press.
More commonly known as “Monty” he is the author of an acclaimed Mortgage Blog, produced the first mortgage industry podcasts several years ago and now presents The Property Show podcast with Louisa Fletcher.
He is a public speaker, presenter, and regular industry columnist who is passionate about financial literacy, mental health and diversity and inclusion.
Andrew is now proud to serve as Chairman of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, (AMI) as a cheerleader for the Mortgage Industry as a whole and continues to work at the coal face, writing mortgage business and advising clients.
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