The most important weapon against vested interests

Trade associations need policies. So let us start with the strengths and benefits of the sector and develop them into policy.

1. The sector has positive social benefit giving our fellow citizens access to quality advice so that they maximise their personal freedom and minimise their impact on the state.

2. We need stability. Regulators may need perpetual policy change but consumers and advisers do not. We need Fos and FCA to fly in formation.

3. Regulation needs to be limited, effective and inexpensive. Consumers cannot afford a regulatory system which costs them more than 25 per cent of their fees.

4. We need proper accountability. Unless we have this, regulation will continue its current parasitic progress. That requires new legislation.

5. Next we need unity. The sector cannot afford to be split into factions.

6. Finally we need scale. We cannot be corralled into a high-cost advice ghetto. If we are doing good things, we have large numbers doing it for the maximum number of people.

Humans are motivated by five useful drivers: greed, achievement, growth, power and fear. Unless we understand these drivers we will not succeed. So how do we motivate politicians?

We cannot bribe so greed is out of the question, but achievement is usable. Most backbenchers, as voting infantry, have very little sense of achievement. Present them with a chance to make a difference and they will work for it.

Growth starts getting party political. Socialists want regulatory growth. Tories want commercial growth. The savings and protection gap helps here. Power is wanted by all politicians but it is possessed by only a few at the top. You get the most change by encouraging the powerful to use their power to make achievements.

Finally the big one – fear, the biggest driver of all and the most avoided in the past 15 years. Politicians and regulators fear being exposed – particularly to public ridicule.

Apfa’s supine approach delivers no surprise and no embarrassment; so it gets ignored. When you represent small retailers such as advisers, you must fight Whitehall, its vested interest and establishment cronyism. To win you need sunlight and surprise. We protected polarisation for 10 years against the vested interests because the regulator thought it could not be removed without attracting parliamentary and media criticism. Under Apfa that protection did not last a year.

We protected polarisation for 10 years against vested interests

Garry Heath Editor is editor of the Heath Report