Clause 6 - Statements to be provided in relation to fixed-sum credit agreements
Consumer Credit Bill
9:30 am
John Battle (Leeds West, Labour)
I sympathise with the proposal of my hon. Friend the Member for Ochil and South Perthshire. We sometimes use the word “transparency”, which suggests that a formal letter goes to someone. I think that it is a question of communication with human beings. The only other post that people with loans from doorstep lenders get through their letterbox tends to be pizza notices or formal demands. Lenders should communicate with people who have borrowed in a human way, so that they understand the nature of the contract into which they have entered, and they get help to work through it. Rather than simply saying to lenders, “Be transparent”, and the lenders then sending people a formal notice that one needs a lawyer to interpret, the lenders should put in some effort to communicate with people as human beings, as we politicians do, dare I say it, when we try to communicate with the electorate through notices and letters. The lenders have a responsibility to help people through a contract, and not just to load more on to them.