As a result there are to be a series of enquiries to focus on what went wrong and how standards can be raised next time around. Doubtless Martin Johnson will fall on his sword to keep the wolves away from the doors of the RFU.
But delve deeper and it becomes clear professional standards in the management of the national game need to be much higher. At club level, professional standards are robust.
Competition in rugby has increased and it has become more lucrative, yet the RFU is still run like an old boys club, an ancient relic of the amateur game that has failed to modernise. As rugby evolves, professional standards need to keep pace if the England team is to be competitive.
The same is true of the bridging industry.
Competition has increased and helped raise professional standards - but only to a point. Like club rugby, many individual firms have raised their games, but there are still RFU-like gaps.
The industry is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success. It has attracted cowboy and Johnny-come-lately types who all want a slice of the bridging pie – and what a pie it is.
The West One Bridging Index forecasts the industry will be worth £806m by the close of 2011. Gross lending in bridging has jumped 46% year-on-year, but only 4% in the rest of the industry, making mainstream mortgage lending look sickly in comparison.
And the growth shows no sing of abating.
The problem is some of the new entrants have few scruples. They hoard proc fees (we pay ours on the day the deal completes), often for up to a month, and advertise dodgy headline rates that they can’t deliver.
This threatens the image of the whole industry, and its reputation for professional integrity.
If we don’t want to be tarred by the same brush, all bridging lenders need to recognise that maintaining high professional standards is important not just for their balance sheets, but also for safeguarding the reputation of the industry.
Just like the England rugby team, the results could be disastrous if they don’t.
DK.
