cherry forum reveals most talked about topics in July

10 August 2023

Interest rate policy to tackle inflation, clients demolishing their mortgaged property and options for brokers looking to go self-employed were three of the most talked about topics in July on the cherryplc.co.uk Adviser Forum.

cherry’s popular broker forum, which attracted almost 6,000 unique visitors in July has detailed some of the most active threads during the month.

The main thrust of the discussion in the thread which posed the question as to ‘how on earth are people going to survive?’, was whether repeated interest rate rises are too blunt an instrument to tackle inflation. It was widely debated in the thread whether the Bank of England’s rate hikes are unfairly punishing one particular group of people and whether this approach has had a lesser effect than if more ‘broad brush’ actions had been taken to extinguish demand; for example, by changing tax rates, considering public spending cuts, or having a regulatory clampdown on consumer credit - rather than the entire anti-inflation strategy seemingly resting on the Bank’s MPC interest rate increases.

Another popular thread on the cherry forum discussed the case of a client knocking down their house. The thread considered the lender’s view on the client’s actions as they had seemingly destroyed their security! In mitigation, the client had subsequently erected a home which was bigger and had a higher value. However, there was plenty of debate over the wisdom and ramifications of the client’s unilateral action.

Meanwhile, a thread created by a mortgage adviser who was employed by a firm but who was considering ‘jumping ship’ was very popular last month. The thread debated the possible options for the employed adviser who is currently transacting relatively small volumes and wants to become self-employed. The point was made that the adviser prefers to set his own targets in order to achieve what he feels is a decent income, while working only on a part-time basis.

Other popular topics in July included continued product withdrawals and repricing, questions around fee charging and documentation specifically with Consumer Duty in mind.

Donna Hopton, director at cherry, said: “Advisers like and trust the cherry broker forum because they know they can safely share their ideas and irritations with intermediary colleagues across the industry. I’m not surprised during these testing times that increasing numbers of brokers are using the cherryplc.co.uk forum for support, sharing business practices as well as occasionally letting off steam!

“As well as the topics mentioned, it won’t be shock to hear that the subject of Consumer Duty repeatedly came up in many different threads during July. Although the new regulation is now finally upon us, I’d anticipate this situation continuing over the next few months as brokers, networks and lenders look to find their feet with the new regime. The question of whether Consumer Duty will be more successful than TCF has been raised…”