The Conservatives’ Economic Competitiveness Group report aims to slash red tape for UK businesses, purportedly to increase their ability to compete, with other proposals including a repeal of working hour regulations, de-regulating venture capital funding, and ending BAA’s airport monopoly.
MP John Redwood, former Welsh secretary for the Conservatives, led the policy group and dubbed the plans ‘a tax cut by any other name’. The report has received backing from Tory leader, David Cameron.
However, Alex Murray, group director of mortgages at Thinc Group, said: “While I’m all for cutting red tape, I believe this is a major retrograde step within the mortgage industry.
“With lenders under pressure to lend more, who will check that they are lending responsibly? Lenders want to lend and there have to be controls there, especially in the adverse market.
“With Alistair Darling recently announcing that 25-year mortgages are the answer to repossessions and the Tories wanting to repeal regulation, it just goes to show how out of touch politicians are with the UK mortgage industry.”
Jeff Knight, director of marketing at GMAC-RFC, added: “We have seen real positives as a result of regulation, particularly from the brokers’ perspective. The broker share of the market in now around 70 to 75 per cent, whereas before it was about 50 per cent. Regulation has been a big part of that. It’s been fantastic for the market and has produced a lot of consumer confidence. Borrowers are far more astute now and as a result want to get face-to-face advice.”
