Dave Fishwick set up his community bank in Burnley to help locals who could not get loans from the big banks
A businessman who set up a community bank offering loans to people in his hometown has said he was shocked when a young mum recently asked for help to buy baby formula.
Dave Fishwick started Burnley Savings and Loans in 2011, a story popularised in Netflix biopic Bank of Dave.
He said the mother’s plea for help highlighted there was a “huge gap in society”.
Many parents are struggling to buy essentials like food, he added.
Mr Fishwick told BBC Radio Lancashire the cost of formula had “gone up and up and up”, with the cheapest brand raising prices by “45% in two years”.
The woman’s request for a loan to help feed her baby was something he had “never seen before”, he added.
‘Get stuck in’
On Wednesday it emerged that manufacturing giant Danone is cutting some formula product prices after years of inflation-driven rises but it is up to retailers if they pass on the savings to customers.
“There seems to be one side of life where there is these huge bonuses being paid to energy giants and banks, but then on the other side we’ve got children starving,” Mr Fishwick said, adding: “How does that work?”
A move to scrap the cap on bankers’ bonuses last year, allowing them to earn “millions and millions of pounds”, jarred with the reality of parents in Burnley asking his lending firm for help to feed their children, the Lancashire businessman said.
The removal of the cap was approved by the Financial Conduct Authority, which the BBC has contacted for comment.
Mr Fishwick’s firm funds a breakfast club at Colne Park High School after the head teacher reported that many students were arriving hungry as parents were struggling to pay for meals.
He said he wanted to see more major companies “getting stuck in and doing their bit” to help people amid the cost-of-living crisis.
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