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What we stand for

People need a fair, affordable credit product.

Lenders need a fair, affordable credit product.

Fairness for the lenders. Fairness for the people they serve.

That’s what we stand for.

Founded in 2017 by actor and activist Michael Sheen, the End High Cost Credit Alliance formally launched on March 20th 2018 at the Responsible Finance conference in Glasgow.

The Alliance is made up of Full Members and Observers.

Full Members are organisations or individuals working towards our common goals and on specific actions that match their resources, remit and capabilities. Observers are organisations who are engaged in informing, learning from and participating in our work but cannot be Full Members for reasons of law, regulatory conditions or political freedoms. They engage because of the potential impact of our actions on their work.

The Alliance has been created to:

Debate

Debate the changes needed in business, politics and society to deliver healthy credit for all and an effective safety net for those individuals who need it

Lead

Lead those with the expertise, resources and responsibility to deliver change and to do so with urgency

Offer

Offer solutions, support current ideas and back new ones whilst providing the resources to test them out locally, nationally and at scale across the UK

Collectively

Collectively call for changes to policy, regulation and practices to make credit fairer for all – driving through more wins.

The Alliance takes a systems change approach to the problem. If we are to achieve real success, multiple actions need to take place at the same time, or be sequenced to have maximum impact at deliberate moments. Our focus is on five key areas of change:

Alternatives

High cost credit is unfairly targeted at those who can least afford it. To make credit fairer for all we seek to influence behaviour change in the flow of major capital to consider investing in fair providers of finance, instead of the high cost credit competitors. We will back fair finance providers, equipping them with the resources to compete and win against high cost credit providers

Public Debate

It takes a movement to create systemic change. The general public are central to that movement. What sort of economy do we want? What sort of society do we want to live in? Improving credit for all starts by improving the credit and support options for those most in need

Regulation / Policy

Presenting the economic and moral case for change in regulation, law and practice and doing so with the involvement of regulators, law makers and practitioners, informed by the general public, experts and fair credit providers.

Wider Workforce

Training workforces across our communities to ensure multiple points of support and signposting to advice and fair finance provision both within the local area and online

Education

Design and deliver a UK wide approach to school and community based financial education.

The Alliance members work by the following principles:

Collaboration

Collaboration is key to reaching real success. No individual member can achieve the scale of change necessary by themselves. We work across the political spectrum and all sectors.

Pooling our resources

Pooling our resources, insight, expertise and reach means we already have a wealth of tools at our hands to enable success

Being

Being being more strategic about each of our campaigns, actions and asks; sequencing our actions to deliver more effective outcomes; working together with our intelligence, data and tools to back individual actions. This is how we will deliver the collective change needed for both maximum impact and efficiency.

The Testing

The Testing of ideas and interventions will happen locally, but always with an eye to the national and UK national potential for scale.