VIDEOS, PRESENTATIONS & IMAGES

Highlights from Manchester 2024

The March of the Mutuals

The Building Societies Association's Chief Executive, Robin Fieth opened his keynote by looking back at his first conference speech 10 years ago, and the future strategy and aspiration outlined for the sector at that time: for building societies, credit unions and the wider financial mutual sector to be at the heart of the future of a properly diverse, competitive and resilient UK financial services sector.

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester

Andy joined our conference just days after being re-elected Mayor of Greater Manchester for a third term. The general theme for his Keynote was the Importance of Place.

He highlighted how the devolution of power and decision-making creates opportunities for building societies, credit unions and combined authorities to work together for the benefit of everyone locally.  He gave examples of some of the steps he has taken as he continues to serve the Greater Manchester area, such as bringing services into local ownership, such as buses, and then working with their local credit union to provide interest-free weekly payments for annual public transport costs.

What should the Chancellor do? 

Two economic experts were given the opportunity to set the economy on a new path, shedding light on the choices and challenges facing the next Government.

First to take to the stage was Lydia Prieg who began by highlighting what she believes are the four key crisis the UK is facing – stagnant wages and productivity, an ageing population, climate change and housing - and then turned her attention to the potential solutions and whether or not the UK can afford them. Professor Trevor Williams was up next, and began his speech by outlining what he believes are the UK’s three big problems – poor productivity, the housing crisis and an ageing population.

Confidence in the Digital Age 

Neil Stansfield, Head of Resilience and Security, National Physical Laboratory began his speech by outlining three worlds: defensive, political and technological, and spoke about their relevance to the building society sector.

Neil defined three technology offsets – the first was ‘New Look’, how technology was used to offset the Soviet Union technology following the end of the Second World War. The second was at the end of the 1970s and it gave the advantage back to the West, offsetting size with technology.

This third technology offset is different, governments are no longer inventing the future. Google invests more in quantum computing than the US Government does and change is being driven by the private sector, driven by commercial investment.

GALLERY

Manchester 2024