The Managing Director of London House, Godfrey Lancashire, has warned that the Government’s plan to remove the Edited Electoral Register will make it much harder for investigators to trace consumers who have changed address without advising their creditors.

London House franchise owners, who provide a private investigation service for businesses and private individuals, often have to trace debtors for their clients. According to Lancashire the removal of the Edited Electoral Register will not only make it harder to trace debtors, but will also increase the risk of mis-tracing, which will result in an increasing number of wrong consumers being approached for debts they do not owe.

Lancashire said: “London House and industry colleagues have been campaigning for access to the Full Electoral Register for some time. We think it is simply illogical to quite rightly allow the use of the Full Electoral Register to check identity and lend money, but then not to allow us access to the Full Register to correctly identify consumers and help them deal with their debt.

“Most importantly, this is stopping us dramatically reducing the chance of mistakenly approaching the wrong consumer simply because we can’t get access to the best and most reliable source of data that is sitting there but can’t be used. The Electoral Register is a unique source of data that can’t be replicated in any other way.

“We understand the motive behind examining who should have access to the Electoral Register and for what reasons, but ask the Government please don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and create a new set of issues which are easily avoidable.

“We want to help the honest consumer find a solution to repay their debt but limit the power of those consumers who want to avoid repayment of debt they can afford.”

Published: 11 March 2011

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