This morning I joined Val Shawcross AM, the Leader of Southwark Council Cllr Peter John and Labour councillors from Southwark and Lambeth to call for an end to legal loan sharking. More and more legally licensed companies in Southwark and Lambeth are offering pay day loans with eye-watering interest rates sometimes charged in excess of 2000%.

Affordable short term credit is needed more than ever to help make ends meet as people face huge cuts from the Government and stagnant wages or unemployment. But many lenders use underhand means to lure consumers into automatic loan renewals, fail to disclose the true cost of the loan, or use other usurious tactics to plunge consumers in a sea of debt.