The purpose of this TTF event is to share thoughts and ideas on how we should evaluate and respond to the speech that will be given by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at her Mansion House speech on 15^th July.

The reason we think this speech is important because the early signs are that it may be used to set out the general direction of travel in relation a number of important topics including financial services regulation.

There are genuine concerns that the government sees deregulation as a way to achieve economic growth. But we think there are different types of deregulation. Whilst we agree that deregulation that cuts out needless red-tape and bureaucracy is fundamentally a good thing , we are genuinely concerned that if deregulation leads to a watering down or dilution of hard fought and won consumer protections then this could lead to numerous unintended consequences.

In particular, there is significant amount of speculation around there being reforms to the redress mechanism involving the financial ombudsman service for example please see this article by Financial Times journalist Martin Arnold.

Furthermore, there is much speculation that changes to redress mechanisms may come about due to the catastrophic regulatory failures around the handling of the car finance scandal, as explained in detail in the BBC Radio 4 programme and the two TTF events about it, where Paul Carlier exposes the failing of the FCA and FOS (see here and here).

So please do come along this event and take part in the debate and discussion that will be had about the Mansion House speech, what it will mean from a consumer protection perspective and how we should respond to it.