Spotlight On: Nathan Long, Senior Policy Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown

Every so often we like to shine the spotlight on our members, and in this case one of the members of the West of England Initiative. We sat down with Nathan Long, Senior Policy Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown to talk about his life at HL and their relationship with the West of England Initiative.

Business West: Tell us about your role – what do you have responsibility for? What does a typical day look like? 

Nathan Long: I’m Nathan Long, Senior Policy Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. 

In a nutshell, my job is to help the Government and our Regulators understand how their rules could be improved to help people who are looking to save and invest for the future and push to get that change. Sometimes this will be specific rule changes, but most recently we’ve been helping to showcase how households can be helped to build financial resilience, an important topic that’s been thrust into the spotlight with the after effects of the pandemic coupled with the cost-of-living crisis seeing us all counting our pennies. 

I’m grateful that there’s no real typical day which means my job is normally really interesting. However, I’ve been leading our work to create a way of measuring household financial resilience – the HL Savings and Resilience Barometer. Together with Oxford Economics, we have committed to explore the issues around financial resilience every six months, to track how economic shocks are impacting households in the short, medium and long-term. We’ve also extended our data analysis so that in the months ahead, we will be able to investigate elements of how our health, money habits and our start in life impact our financial resilience. 

You can access the savings and resilience tool here.

BW: What does your organisation do? Why do you like working for them?

NL: At Hargreaves Lansdown, we have been at the heart of building resilience for over 40 years – helping the nation save and invest with confidence. We are the UK’s number one platform for private investors. For nearly 40 years, we have helped clients save time, tax and money on their investments. Today we are trusted with more than £120 billion by 1.6 million clients. We are a secure, FTSE 100 company, headquartered in Bristol employing over 1,700 people.

I’m personally coming up to having worked for HL for 20 years, so you’d imagine I enjoy the company and what we do. I’ve worked in a variety of roles in that time from advising people about their finances, companies about their pension schemes and speaking to the media, government and regulators on a range of issues. 

Above all, the thing I love about HL is that we’re all focussed on trying to help improve how our clients make decisions with their finances, aiming to be their trusted partner and financial champion. I’m particularly proud that we’ve always aimed to make investing accessible for those who want to learn for themselves and aspire to improve their circumstances. 

The last couple of years, I’ve had a greater focus in building household financial resilience culminating in launching the HL Savings & Resilience Barometer in January. The work showed the uneven pattern of resilience across the nation. The second edition shows that while financial resilience increased through the pandemic, much of this increase has been eroded by rising inflation: surplus incomes, cash savings and pensions investments have fallen across all parts of society. The dataset also models what the next twelve months holds in store, to help us all understand how these strains will impact households’ financial resilience.

In light of these cost of living challenges and following feedback we received after the launch of the first report we have been focusing our minds on how we can work towards the aim of making Bristol the most financially resilient city in the UK. We have been thinking through an initiative that would harness the role of employers in helping their staff become financially resilient. By setting out a framework for employers in Bristol to align to we can improve the access Bristolians have access to the right financial education and employee benefits to build their financial resilience aligned to the five pillars of resilience that we have identified and measure. 

BW: Why have you joined the Bristol Initiative? 

NL: As a Bristol based business, we want to contribute to the community we operate in. Being able to network with other businesses, understand their priorities and hear about the different initiatives happening across Bristol is a valuable tool. This is why we were so keen to do this blog and share our plans for a Bristol Resilient Employers framework and encourage other businesses to help boost the financial resilience of their workforce. Research has shown that 50% of UK employees want help with savings in 2022 but only 18% of employers are planning to help, likewise, there is a perception gap in what employers are offering versus what employees are experiencing – 21% of UK employers said they provide financial education whereas only 7% of employees said they were provided with financial education. (The State of Financial Wellbeing, The UK Workplace Report 2022. Wagestream) This is something we are actively trying to address and are keen to share this with other Business West members.

BW: What are the key agendas that you’re looking forward to getting involved with? 

NL: Economic recovery post covid and the current cost of living crisis is going to have an impact on everyday lives. Through our work on financial resilience and the 5 to Thrive campaign we’re keen to help support member firms support their staff through these harder times. 

BW: Where is your favourite place to visit in Bristol?

NL: With so many great places it’s so hard to pick just one. The combination of new exciting developments and wonderful Bristol landmarks make the harbourside one of my favourites. There’s always such a buzz and with HL’s offices being based just round the corner from Millennium Square it gives me ample opportunity to enjoy this part of the city.  

If you'd like to follow Nathan on social media you can do so on Twitter here, or you can follow HL as well here. Also if you are a member of a Business West Chamber of Commerce and would like to be featured in a blog just like this one then you can get in touch.