Southern Forum 2023: Looking to the future

31 March 2023

More than 100 insolvency, restructuring and turnaround professionals from across the south of England congregated at the De Vere Wokefield Estate near Reading for our 2023 Southern Forum at the end of March.

With sessions covering pre-packs, working with offshore teams, recruitment and the future of the UK economy, the programme was packed – and we’ve summarised some of the highlights below.

Working with an offshore team

This year’s Southern Forum kicked off with a discussion from Carrie James, Partner at Kreston Reeves, who outlined her experience working with offshore team in India and the positives and challenges of working with teams across the globe.

A key takeaway was the cost-effectiveness of working with teams overseas, particularly as many practices are struggling with recruitment at the moment.

But this option isn’t without its challenges: appropriate training and investment are required, and planning needs to be carefully thought-out to manage the potential complications around staff turnaround, cultural differences and regulation.

Exploring pre-pack evaluations

Our second session saw Anthony Fanshawe draw on his extensive experience of selling businesses out of administration and receivership to explore evaluator reports and their role in pre-pack administrations.

Anthony explained that evaluator reports can “take the political sting” out of the pre-pack process, showing creditors from an independent source the logic of accepting a director’s offer, and that they also provide an opportunity to increase the value of the business and its assets.

The latest on Quincecare

The Quincecare duty – so-called following Barclays Bank plc v Quincecare Ltd [1992], which introduced a duty for a bank to demonstrate it has acted with reasonable care and skill in carrying out its customer’s payment instructions, was the subject of our mid-morning conference session.  

This case hit the headlines recently after a couple were defrauded out of hundreds of thousands of pounds in an APP scam, and sued Barclays Bank claiming the bank had breached the Quincecare duty in allowing them to transfer the money.

If the Supreme Court does decide to widen the scope of Quincecare to also include retail customers, it will provide additional protection to victims of APP fraud – but will significantly increase the risk of liability for the banks.

Lessons from the hospitality sector

Since the pandemic, companies in the hospitality space have struggled to get back on their feet, with many having to make the difficult decision to close. In a session from Andy Merricks, CEO at LSS Group, and Stephen Hunt, Partner at Griffins, the reasons behind why the hospitality sector has taken such a knock over the past three years were explored.

These included: struggling to bring staff back to work when restaurants, bars and pubs reopened following the pandemic, pressure for higher staff wages, and the more recent massive hike in energy bills – which has led to poor credit businesses seeing a utility bill rise of 800-900 per cent.

So what’s the likely outcome? Andy and Stephen summarised that in 2023 we are likely to see significantly reduced number of wet-led community pubs and poorly located hotels, few lower-end chain restaurants, and more work in restructuring, pre-pack or administration of some over-leveraged multi-site companies.

Looking ahead with R3

The morning ended with a session from R3’s CEO, President, and Head of External Affairs about our plans for the year ahead.

The last 12 months have seen R3 re-establish our in-person events programme, build on the success of the Training Academy by offering more courses and certifications, and give the profession a voice on areas like regulation and reforms to Companies House.

And with a packed event calendar, plans to re-establish our in-person courses and grow our e-training offering, and reviews of both the regulatory framework and the personal insolvency framework set to take place this year, it’s going to be a busy 12 months for everyone at R3!

Tackling recruitment and retention

All industries are struggling with recruitment, and the insolvency profession is no exception. In this afternoon session, delegates took part in a workshop around how factors such as diversity, inclusion and equity, well-being, competitive salaries and flexible working can be improved to help obtain and keep a happy and well-trained workforce.

It was fascinating to see the breadth and depth of what goes into creating a diverse business, and just how different the concept of diversity and inclusion looks to everyone.

Ending on a keynote

The final session of the Forum came from our keynote speaker, Primondell Director Jeremy Mindell, who discussed the impact of the Spring Budget and wider political reflections.

Jeremy was optimistic about how the UK is faring in comparison to other European countries and the United States, and also took a deep dive into the challenges we are facing, such as the great work shortage following the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, stretched public finances, and inflationary pressures.

Two key takeaways: the Government is using “nudge” tactics like pension and child benefit reforms to encourage more people to return to work, and the current culture of entrepreneurism could lead to more opportunities for the profession due to the challenges new businesses face in their early years.  

An interesting end to an interesting event. Thank you to everyone who attended – and to our speakers, sponsors, and our organising committee.