Reading Council to Ban Pay Day Loan Advertising

Reading Borough Council will ban all adverts from so-called ‘pay day loan’ firms on its property as part of a new advertising and sponsorship policy it is set to adopt.

Advertising for betting or gambling services, alcohol, tobacco and adult content would also be banned under the proposed new policy, which outlines what sort of adverts the Council will accept on it’s sites in the future.

If agreed, the banning of advertising by legal pay day loan companies – who target the vulnerable by charging exorbitant rates of interest on short term loans – will deliver on a pledge made by Council Leader Jo Lovelock as part of last week’s ‘Tackling Poverty’ event at the Town Hall.

Reading Borough Council has a number of assets across the borough where it accepts adverts. These include roundabouts, street lights, vehicles and the Council’s website, as well as publications and events. Before now no definitive policy was in place to detail what is and is not acceptable. The Advertising and Sponsorship Policy being proposed contains a number of general guidelines which will determine what can and cannot be advertised on Council property.

Under the policy, any advertising or sponsorship on Council assets would have to adhere to a number of basic principles. These are:

• Legal, decent, honest and truthful
• Created with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society
• In line with the principles of fair competition

If accepted at a meeting of the Council’s Policy Committee on Monday December 2nd, the policy will be used to govern all future advertising and sponsorship activity of the Council.