Papering over the cracks?

Rules, regulations and real trust with Ed Smith

Reviews and News

‘Ed Smith and Richard Reeves in a recent paper for the Work Foundation make a compelling case that the instinct to regulate to plug the gaps in trust that exist in any particular society may have quite the opposite effect. In other words, short term regulatory attempts to shore up trust in business – tougher codes, controls and reporting requirements – will over the longer term undermine the true basis of trust. If we trust someone simply because there are legal sanctions against them acting in an untrustworthy way, we do not, in fact, trust them at all.’ – Rick Haythornthwaite, Chairman, Better Regulation Commission in a speech to the ABI: click here for the full speech.

‘Smith and Reeves, in their paper for The Work Foundation, highlight one business commodity which rules cannot easily produce: trust.’ For more of the views of Mark Wagstaff of the Housing Corporation, see his paper to the Cambridge Regulation Conference in 2007 click here.

In a presentation to the OECD, Ruth Farwell, Director and Chief Executive of Buckinghamshire and Chilterns University, used the model of ‘real’ and ‘regulated trust’ – for her slides click here.