Result due in district society row

The fate of the ICAEW’s regional ‘grand plan’ hung in the balance yesterday as members voted at the district societies’ egm, writes Philip Smith.

But as Accountancy Age went to press early indications suggested the institute had successfully defeated the protestors’ resolutions by a comfortable margin.

Although the institute’s council could have ignored the meeting’s result, an insider said an adverse result would have been ‘bloody unhelpful’.

The egm was the culmination of an acrimonious fight that pitted the weight of the institute’s national officers against a small but vocal band of pro-society dissidents.

The controversial plans first came to light last year when the institute outlined plans to revamp the society network.

Separately, it has emerged the institute could face the threat of another special meeting to debate changes made to the institute’s financial services ‘rule book’.

The call came from Peter Mitchell, chairman of the Small Practitioners’ Association, who was alarmed at the lack of consultation on changes introduced under the Financial Services and Markets Act. The proposed rule book would ‘rule in’ to investment business the previously exempt activity of dealing with shares of private owner-managed businesses.

In a letter to the institute Mitchell said it appeared it ‘has no clear idea how this law will operate’ for small firms with unlisted company clients.

But institute president Michael Groom urged both sides to get together.

See the result on AccountancyAge.com.