Institute merger revival set for 2007

The ICAEW may yet propose another merger to its members, but not before 2007,
the institute’s chief executive Eric Anstee said this week.

Institute members only narrowly voted down a merger with CIPFA at
the end of last year, but Anstee’s position is that a merger is not off the
agenda, though it will not be pursued in the immediate future.

‘Council has given us the mandate to take it back to the membership should we
so wish before the end of 2007, and this is not something I would rule out
provided the terms were right,’ he said.

In October 2005, Anstee’s merger plans with CIPFA were put on hold after a
poll of ICAEW members was lost by just 540 votes. At the time, Anstee claimed
that a majority of those voting supported consolidation.

Steve Freer, head of CIPFA, said his institute would work with the ICAEW’s
timetable, but pointed out that the public sector body would have to take a vote
again. ‘We remain interested and, if that’s the earliest timetable for the
ICAEW’s membership, we have to work with that,’ he said.

Anstee intends to spend the intervening period communicating the institute’s
broad strategy in a bid to strengthen his hand should he launch another merger
effort.
Go to page 4 for more on Anstee’s reform plans