Justice comes slowly on Woodford
AMULTI-MILLION pound group claim against investment fund supervisor Link for failing to safeguard the financial interests of Woodford Equity Income investors is edging ever closer to the courts.
Over the weekend, law firms Harcus Parker and Leigh Day wrote a joint letter to Link outlining the basis of their claim against it. This is ahead of the claim being heard in the courts in the next couple of months.
The charge sheet is long. But they accuse Link of failing to ensure the fund was run by Neil Woodford in accordance with rules laid down by the regulator – the Financial Conduct Authority. By allowing Woodford to invest excessively in illiquid, difficult-to-sell investments, Link caused investors significant financial loss.
Financial justice will not come quickly for victims of the Woodford investment scandal – they have already been waiting nearly three years. But at least the law firms are moving things along, unlike the FCA, whose own investigation into Woodford seems to be stuck in a quagmire.
A BIG thank you to readers who have been in touch to say how outraged they were over the bonusinflated remuneration that building society chiefs enjoyed last year.
This follows our exclusive report seven days ago on the jaw-dropping packages that many chief executives received in 2021 on the back of runaway society profits.
‘The building society gravy train rolls on,’ we said. In some cases, bosses received six-figure annual bonuses – £622,000 in the case of Skipton’s David Cutter, while Yorkshire’s Stephen White received £406,000. Given that White only served a month as (interim) chief executive in 2021 – for the rest of the year he was a society executive – I shudder at the thought of what kind of Everest-like bonus he would have got if he had been numero uno for the entire year.
Cliff Child, a former aircraft technician from just outside Goole in East Yorkshire, was among those readers to contact us.
‘I am an 80-year-old pensioner and I don’t understand how these society bosses get away with being paid such large bonuses,’ he writes. Spot on.
‘Savers,’ he continues, ‘are receiving a pittance in interest and have been doing so for several years.’
Absolutely right, Cliff. It’s why we, alone among national newspapers, have been campaigning since December last year for banks and building societies to ‘give savers a rate rise’.
‘Society bosses,’ concludes Cliff, ‘appear to be helping themselves and members need to protest against it.’ Again, Cliff is bang on.
With the annual meetings for Skipton and Yorkshire on the horizon – on April 25 and 26 respectively – members still have a window open to register their disquiet over boardroom largesse. All they need to do is vote against the directors’ remuneration report.
The respective deadlines for votes to be cast by members not attending the meetings in person are April 20 and 22.
If you feel as strongly as Cliff does about the extraordinary pay enjoyed by the boss of the society looking after your savings, I urge you to vote. It’s your right. If you do nothing, the gravy train will keep rolling on.
ON A lighter note, I received a lovely message from the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group about the steam engine, left – one of four it owns. The J72 69023 is being overhauled in Darlington for the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 2025. The group is seeking funds to get the work done in time. Anyone interested should visit nelpg.org.uk. I have donated. Maybe Cutter and White – avid readers I am sure of The Mail on Sunday – would care to spend a sliver of their 2021 bonus on such an admirable cause.