It didn’t take long to get an early contender for the worst media interview of 2024.
And in terms of fallout, it might take some beating.
The comments made during a radio interview resulted almost instantly in furious headlines and social media posts.
The remarks were labelled ‘ludicrous’ by critics, and the spokesperson described as being out of touch.
It happened when Sir Howard Davies, the NatWest chairman, appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme, which you can catch here, at around 2:10.
The interview initially focused on cuts to mortgage rates.
But it went off the rails after he was asked a speculative question about when he thought it would be easier for people to get on the property ladder.
“Well, I don’t think it is that difficult at the moment,” he said.
That comment surprised presenter Amol Rajan, who interrupted by saying: “To buy a house? In this country? Are we living in the same country, or are you reporting from overseas?”
But Sir Howard defended his claim saying: “You have to save, and that is the way it always used to be.”
He did add that he “recognised people at the start of the process will have to save more”.
"It's not that difficult to get on the properly ladder."
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) January 5, 2024
NatWest chair Sir Howard Davies tells @amolrajan people 'have to save and that's the way it always used to be'.
Watch the full exchange ⬇️#R4Today
But the damage was done.
Within minutes, stories were published online with stinging headlines about the comments.
Here is a brief selection:
Sir Howard Davies: Not that difficult to buy a home, says NatWest chair BBC News
It’s not that difficult to buy a house in Britain, NatWest boss claims Independent
NatWest boss makes 'staggering' claim that it's 'not that difficult' to buy first home Mirror
WHAT A BANKER ‘No idea of real world’, NatWest boss with £763k salary is blasted for claiming it’s ‘not difficult’ to buy first home The Sun
Sir Howard Davies, chair of NatWest Bank, has just told Radio 4 that he does not think it is hard for people to get on the housing ladder in the UK. That is a staggering demonstration of the disconnect between bankers and reality in this country.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) January 5, 2024
Good news, renters — Howard Davies says it's not that difficult to buy a home.
— The Equality Trust (@equalitytrust) January 5, 2024
Is it possible that Davies, who is paid more than the UK median yearly wage after only 16 days of work, is out of touch? pic.twitter.com/FAT8hJMODI
And beyond the headlines, those stories contained stinging criticism.
Ben Twomey, chief executive of campaign group Generation Rent, said: "What planet does he live on?
“We are in a cost of renting crisis that is making it incredibly hard for people to buy a home as we hand a third of our wages every month over to our landlord.
“Interest rates have increased, but house prices have yet to correct, meaning we still need to save for a huge deposit but also would need a high income to afford monthly mortgage repayments.”
Katy Eatenton, a mortgage and protection specialist at Lifetime Wealth Management, called the comments "ludicrous".
She said: "The cost of living is the highest it has been, rents are increasing year on year, and house prices, interest rates, and the lack of first-time buyer schemes are all adding to the difficulty in getting on the property ladder.
"Sir Howard Davies is totally out of touch with reality."
And that’s the issue in a nutshell. A misjudged response has quickly created the image of a wealthy, well-paid banker who is out of touch with the struggles experienced by his customers.
Buying a house probably isn’t that difficult if you earn more than £700,000 a year. But how many people are in that position?
A recent report found the number of first-time buyers who bought a home with a mortgage fell to the lowest level in a decade in 2023.
Such was the scale of the backlash that NatWest issued a statement later the same day.
In it, Sir Howard said: “Given recent rate movements by lenders there are some early green shoots in mortgage pricing and while funding remains strong, my comment was meant to reflect that in this context access to mortgages is less difficult than it has been.
“I fully realise it did not come across in that way for listeners and as I said on the programme, I do recognise how difficult it is for people buying a home and I did not intend to underplay the serious challenges they face.”
Damian Watson, one of our expert tutors, made me aware of the interview, telling me he had heard something that made his “jaw drop”.
He said: “I was listening with my 22-year-old daughter.
"She's in the same position as most of her generation - unable to even think about buying her own home without parental help and daunted by property prices. I was shocked by Davies' comment, but my daughter was absolutely livid that a ‘boomer’ in such a privileged and influential position could be so patronising and out of touch.”
Maybe we should not be that surprised. Sir Howard gave an interview last year amid the fallout from the Nigel Farage/Coutts saga where he said, “I don’t have feelings”. If you don’t have feelings, can you be in touch with what others experience?
His latest comments reminded me of when Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England Governor, gave an interview to the BBC early in the cost-of-living crisis where he suggested hard-up workers should not ask for a big wage increase.
That comment saw him labelled the ‘Plank of England’.
Like that pay rise clanger, Sir Howard’s gaffe could have been avoided with preparation, something we always stress during our media training courses.
If you are going to be interviewed on mortgage rate cuts, it seems likely that a question could be asked about when more people might be able to get on the property ladder. It’s not much of a leap.
We tell our media training delegates they should always anticipate and plan answers for questions on wider issues that are brought into interviews.
Had Sir Howard done that with his comms advisors, they surely would have realised that ‘it’s not that difficult’ was not a good response, particularly when all the evidence suggests it is difficult. Rich people telling others things are not difficult never lands well.
I asked Damian what media training advice he would offer.
“From a professional comms perspective, it was a ludicrous and completely unnecessary thing to say. It wasn't as if the interviewer led him down that rabbit hole. The question was framed in quite a positive way and made it easy for Davies to answer by saying something about lower interest rates helping borrowers - the peg on which the interview was hung in the first place. But, he chose to answer in a way that invited the incredulity of the interviewer and listener alike.
"One of the techniques we teach is, if possible and beneficial, simply to answer the question being asked - if it's a tough, negative, question, then 'bridging' may be used.
“The answer here did not do that and opened up an avenue of attack for the interviewer that should not have been opened.”
Damian and I both think Sir Howard realised, probably too late, that he had made a mistake. As the interview went on, he became increasingly tetchy and argumentative. Damian said he was “bordering on petulant”.
When the Farage/Coutts saga was brought into the interview, he accused the journalist of “not allowing me to talk” and of using “hindsight” and described a question as “very long”.
This was a trickier area for the NatWest boss given the fallout surrounding the issue. But his demeanour was much different from how he had started the interview.
As we stress during our media training courses, you cannot allow your frustration to show.
The audience is unlikely to sympathise with a spokesperson who criticises the questions, talks over the presenter and sounds argumentative.
Not that they would have had much sympathy left for Sir Howard after his property ladder comments.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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