Franky on Finance

Councils are to be banned from selling home addresses off the electoral register to companies who bombard us with junk mail. The move will make it harder for firms to track people down when they move house - and could limit the amount of mail sent out. A long-awaited report commissioned by Gordon Brown has said that the ‘edited’ electoral roll which is sold by local authorities in electronic form should be scrapped. This roll contains the names of anyone who fails to opt out when filling in their electoral registration card each year - currently around 60% of householders or 15 million. The report also said that the opt-out directions were often written in ‘confusing’ language, and householders did not realise what they were agreeing to. Everybody has to be on the full electoral register, but this cannot be bought or sold, and is available in paper form only.