In our keynote address we hear from Johnny Timpson OBE, not only does Johnny have a lived experience of disability himself, but he is also a trustee of the Caudwell Children disability charity, plus a former DWP and Cabinet Office Disability Access Ambassador – and member of the Prime Ministers Champion Group for Dementia Communities. Additionally, he is a member of regulatory consumer protection panels in both the financial services and energy sectors – plus he founded and chairs the Building Resilient Households Group think-tank. Johnny’s unique perspective spans a career committed to supporting vulnerable customers from telecoms, energy, water and financial services. This talk will explore the growth in regulations to help support vulnerable customers springs from a consumer crisis: customers receiving ‘bad outcomes’ or being treated unfairly.

• Firms are responding, but does that response go far enough – and are firms missing what could be a significant opportunity?
• Johnny examines what the UK Government and regulators are looking for and asks whether meeting regulations goes far enough towards providing personalised, meaningful support.
• Why is there is a need for better, more detailed data, what that data should be – and how that data should be safely shared to make life easier for the consumer, and why firms’ approach to data should be more consumer-centric. He argues that regulation should be the beginning of helping vulnerable customers, not the extent of it – that there is a need and commercial benefit to going beyond what the regulator wants.