Janet Williamson's Archive — Page 2
Janet is TUC Senior Policy Officer responsible for policy on institutional investment, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility.
She also contributes to TUC pensions policy and campaigning and is a trustee of the TUC Superannuation Society.
Janet Williamson
The TUC is publishing today its eighth Fund Manager Voting Survey – an annual survey that asks the largest UK fund managers how they voted at a selection of ‘controversial’ votes at company AGMs.
The survey shows that who manages your pension makes a huge difference to how your pension fund votes on a range of issues from remuneration through to chicken welfare and labour standards.
Janet Williamson
The Chancellor claimed that his budget was ‘progressive’, which would probably be a surprise to those who might justifiably expect to benefit from any usual definition of progressive measures. He also claimed it would boost the prospects for economic growth. How do the corporation tax cuts fare judged by these claims?
The headline policy on corporation tax is the reduction of the main rate from 28% to 24% over the next four years. The Budget does not claim that this will have any impact on growth, but does boast that it ‘will give the UK the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G7’. Is this really a top priority at a time when the Government is trying to save billions of pounds and is cutting the benefits paid to protect the health of pregnant women?
Janet Williamson
The Kraft bid for Cadbury revealed how few powers UK regulators have to act to ensure that mergers and takeovers in the UK act operate in the public interest. However, one of the few areas where the Government does have the right to intervene is to protect media plurality.
If News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB were to go ahead, the resulting concentration of media ownership that the new company would represent would lead to a serious reduction in media plurality, which is a cornerstone of a flourishing democracy. It is would also lead to a substantial reduction in competition in the media sector. The implications for consumers of news and content generally and for other broadcasters - notably the BBC, which the Murdoch empire continually rails against – look bleak.
Janet Williamson
The No 10 Briefing on the flexible working and equal pay bill contains a brief reference to ‘looking to promote gender equality on the boards of listed companies’. The TUC has long been an advocate of greater diversity on boards, including, but going beyond the important issue of gender diversity.
At present, company directors are drawn from a very narrow range of backgrounds and we believe that the quality of discussion and decision-making on boards would benefit from a wider range of voices being heard in the boardroom.
Janet Williamson
There are two interesting corporate governance developments hidden in the detail of the budget report. Mandatory disclosure by institutional investors of how they cast their votes at company AGMs has been a long-standing TUC aim that we have campaigned for over many years. We have edged closer to achieving this today, as the budget report (chapter 3, page 40) says that the Government will consider using its power taken in the Companies Act 2006 to require public disclosure of voting records for institutional investors.
Janet Williamson
The one-off 50% tax on bank bonuses is welcome. Setting the qualifying level at median earnings underlines the absurdity of the fact that so many working in the City earn so many times more than average earners for doing – well, a variety of things, including contributing to the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
However, if the Government wants to bring about a permanent change in the scale of City bonuses it will need to follow up this one-off tax with stronger, longer-term measures.
Janet Williamson
David Walker’s review of bank governance acknowledges the lack of effective engagement between UK companies and their shareholders and the contribution this made to the financial crisis. But it fails to recognise that weak shareholder engagement and control leaves a gaping hole in the UK’s corporate governance system.
Janet Williamson
In a useful and timely contribution to the financial crisis debate, PIRC – the Pensions Investment Research Consultants – has published a manifesto outlining its recommendations for reform of corporate governance and capital markets.
PIRC recognises that alongside a catastrophic failure of financial regulation, the financial crisis represents a failure of corporate governance, and its analysis makes a welcome change from the focus on the (admittedly very important) issues of credit, liquidity and financing that have dominated the pages of the Financial Times and other broadsheets in their analysis of the crisis.
Janet Williamson
The ban on short-selling in financial stocks brought in at the end of last week by the FSA and the SEC was greeted with some scepticism as well as relief, but it has been credited with helping to boost the stock market after its recent plunges. The actions of the regulators have been mirrored by some of the world’s major pension funds, which have also moved to prevent their shares in various financial companies being lent out to short-sellers.
