‘A warm welcome to the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants

As President, I am delighted to be leading our Society through an exciting period of change.

We are about to become a charity with the principal aim of supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who wish to embark upon a career as a Chartered Accountant, and thus continue to support the legacy of the Society that dates back to 1870 as the oldest District Society in the UK and a founder of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW). Our background and plans for the future are detailed in the next section, and just below is the speech that I gave at the recent Annual Dinner of the Liverpool Society on 29th November.

It is a personal view of recent events, and received much positive support at the dinner:

Good evening everybody,

My name is Nick Ledingham and I am a Chartered Accountant.

I am stating the obvious here but that is the way I always introduce myself when I am giving talks and lectures. The reason of course is that I am very very proud to be a Chartered Accountant.

I am also of course – in case any of you haven’t noticed – currently the President of the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants – which is the oldest Society of Chartered Accountants in the world. More of that later.

Many of you here will have been to quite a number of LSCA Annual Dinners but for others of you this will be your first occasion. I think this is something like my 25th but there is a table over there at the back which I think can count almost three hundred attendances between them.

Those of you who have been to previous Dinners will recall that there has always been a small brochure on each table which gives details of our sponsors, the food – obviously – but also the history of the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants and a list of the names of its Presidents going back to 1870.

 The ICAEW hierarchy have decided however that the brochure is no longer necessary and so you will have to forgive me for carrying on the tradition of the LSCA Dinner by reminding you a little of our history.

As we say in this city – or at least half of us do ….If – you know – your his tory ….

Don’t worry I’m not going to go through all of the names of the 130 Presidents we have had since we were founded – although it is important that we do not forget where we have come from.

The Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants was of course founded in 1870 when 14 “gentlemen engaged in accountancy” met at the offices of Messrs Harmood Banner & Sons at 24 North John Street for the purpose of “taking into consideration the propriety of forming a Society to be called The Incorporated Society of Liverpool Accountants”.

In its first Memorandum and Articles the stated purpose of the Society was “the protection of the character, status and interest of the accountants of Liverpool and the promotion of honourable practice”.

Shortly afterwards (note the word afterwards), similar societies were formed in Manchester, London and Sheffield and in due course 10 years later, these societies together formed the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. This is now our National Institute.

Mr National President, I know that you are deeply aware of our magnificent history but with the greatest respect, I suspect that many in the ICAEW in London may have either forgotten this now,  or perhaps may never have been aware in the first place of these important origins.

The area covered by the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants stretches from Southport down to mid-Cheshire and then all the way across to mid-Wales and up to Anglesey.

I should also mention that in 1947 a separate branch of LSCA was formed being the Chester and North Wales Society of Chartered Accountants, a body which I was very proud many years ago to be Chairman of, and many of its members are also here this evening.

Indeed once upon a time, the Isle of Man Society of Chartered Accountants, with which we had a very strong relationship, was part of LSCA. 

As you will have heard from Mark however, who of course is, the Chair of ICAEW Liverpool and also the Deputy President of LSCA, the ICAEW in its wisdom, or rather I suspect the more senior ICAEW staff as opposed to its members, decided that the Institute in London wanted more centralised control over the regions, and more direct control by its own staff.

As a result a separate organisation was formed in December 2023, ICAEW Liverpool. ICAEW Liverpool has taken on many of the responsibilities that LSCA had in the region in terms of organising events (including this Dinner) and communicating with the various other local statutory and non-statutory bodies in the region.

It would be wrong of me to try and hide my feelings about this. I and many of my colleagues within our Committee and within our membership think it has been a retrograde step. The Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants has always been a very strong independent District Society and has represented both its members and the National ICAEW tirelessly and effectively in this region.

Across the country, many District Societies have pretty much disappeared  – in part as a result of this change of policy (although there are some in the south who have been able to remain independent). Trying to rule strong minded and well established grass route organisations from a distant ivory tower has never been a recipe for success.

Despite my comments, about the change and the new body, the LSCA does nevertheless have a close relationship with ICAEW Liverpool. Some of the Committee Members and Officers of LSCA are also Board Members of ICAEW Liverpool and although the ICAEW national staff have put constraints on our future activities, we nevertheless hope that going forward we can work successfully together.

The intention originally was for there to be a QR code on the slides behind me pointing towards the LSCA website (which is at www.charteredone.co.uk). However the homepage of our website as well as carrying the LSCA logo also carries the ICAEW logo and as a result the ICAEW have refused to place our QR code on the slide. If you are interested however the LSCA website is at Chartered One i.e. the word chartered with one at the end of it, .co.uk. Chartered One is the name of our own society magazine and the name of course reflects our proud history – Chartered One.

I am tempted at this stage to compare the situation with the Prime Minister’s speech in Love Actually at the press conference where the US President is asked whether it has been a “good visit” and he responds:-

“Very satisfactory indeed. We got what we came for and our special relationship is still very special”.

You may recall that Hugh Grant, the Prime Minister replies:-

“I love that word relationship. It covers all manners of sins doesn’t it? I fear that this has become a bad relationship. A relationship based on the ICAEW taking exactly what it wants and casually ignoring all of those things that really matter to The Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants. We may be a small District Society but we are a great one too.

A society of the Beatles, Paul O’Grady, Ken Dodd, Wayne Rooney’s right foot (Wayne Rooney’s left foot come to that!).”

I was tempted to add Jordan Pickford’s right hand as well!

Of course, Hugh Grant goes on to say that “A friend who bullies us in no longer a friend”.

Despite what I have said however, I do very much hope that the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants can continue to be friends with ICAEW Liverpool and ICAEW nationally and that both bodies go from strength to strength.

As I have said, The Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants remains in place as the independent custodian of the historical legacy of LSCA and still has a President, Deputy President, Vice President and a full Committee who are all still very active in Liverpool.

Going forward it intends to continue to represent Chartered Accountants in the region as well as operating in the charitable sector. It is also our intention to register as a charity with the Charity Commission and this work is already under way.

Amongst other activities, we intend to award prizes and small bursaries to university students studying accountancy in the seven universities in our area and to assist young aspiring accountants as well as, if we can, disadvantaged school leavers, to progress into the profession in our region.

You may think that this has been a rather odd speech by your District Society President but I hope what will have come across is how passionate both I and many others are about the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants and its history as well as letting you all know that it is still very much alive and kicking !

Ladies and gentleman, the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants.

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