Interest rate policy to tackle inflation, clients demolishing their mortgaged property and options for brokers looking to go self-employed were the top three talked about topics on the Cherry adviser forum in July.

The broker forum attracts almost 6,000 unique visitors in July and has detailed the most active threads during the period.

The thread asked how people can survive in relation to the repeated rise in interest rates to tackle inflation. It was widely debated as to whether the Bank of England’s (BoE’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 thread on the forum which proved popular last month 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 ‘destroyed their property’. However, the client had subsequently erected a home which was bigger and had a higher value, leading to a sizeable debate on the action.

Furthermore, the forum also explored the scenario of a mortgage adviser who was employed by a firm but was considering ‘jumping ship’. Exploring the possible options for the adviser, the point was made that they prefer to set their own targets in order to achieve what they feel is a decent income, whilst only working on a part time basis.

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

Director at Cherry, Donna Hopton, 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.”

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