Spreading the message across the political spectrum

My blogs always seem to start by saying I have been really busy: and this one is no different – but I will try to vary the intro in future posts...

So, I have been to the Labour and Conservative Party conferences: networking and lobbying on behalf of the sector. Both events were really useful and, inevitably, had different perspectives on our work. The Labour party know a lot about us and are supportive of our financial and social objectives,while the Conservatives are keen to find out more about the way we help people to help themselves. So the interest lies across the political spectrum and we will be capitalising on this in the run-up to the general election next year.

In fact, I have started this already and had follow up meetings with MPs of all parties including Cabinet Office minister Angela Smith, and Vince Cable of the Lib Dems. Other MPs I have met recently (all chosen because their portfolios are connected to our aims) are Andrew Selous, James Plaskitt, Greg Hands, Tony Wright, Sir Paul Beresford, Kerry McCarthy, Mark Todd, Roger Gale and Graham Brady.

I also managed to fit in a trip to Brussels where I gave a training session on lobbying to a pan-European group of microfinance organisations. It seems that our lobbying successes are the envy of all Europe, which is great news for us. My cdfa colleagues who have been of particular help in our lobbying activities are Joe Dumont and Harry Glavan, so thanks are due to them for all their hard work.

BIS held a really interesting meeting of CDFI stakeholders last week which discussed at length the potential for one regulatory framework for the sector. All parties agreed that this approach would be really helpful but that it would need to be designed to support the sector’s growth and be proportional to its activities. It was also agreed that designing such a framework will be a complex task as CDFIs are already regulated by a number of different entities depending on their legal status and mission. But then, we always did like a challenge in this sector, otherwise we wouldn’t be here in the first place.

On the home front
Well the patio is still there and doing its job, which is more than can be said for the kitchen ceiling!