I've a bit of a backlog on things to report since my last posting (‘backblog'?). Lots of meetings and discussions as our community reinvestment campaign continues to gain momentum.

Conversations with officials at the Treasury have been useful but there's a lot of work to be done to convince them to go as far as we would like. They've told me they are looking at a CRA as one of a range of possible changes to banking regulation. But to be honest I don't hold out a huge amount of hope that the forthcoming banking reform white paper will change things very much. At the risk of sounding cynical, I can't help overlook the fact that Lord Myners (who is the Minister responsible) has spent most of his career in the financial services sector. Maybe that makes him the ideal Financial Services Secretary...or maybe not. Either way, there will be a public consultation when the banking reform white paper is published, so perhaps there's still scope for a CRA to be introduced this side of the general election. We'll find out soon enough as the white paper is expected very soon.

CLG, even without empowerment champion Hazel Blears at its helm, have been quite supportive of a CRA. The problem is they're not in charge of banking regulation and even if the new Secretary of State, John Denham, is keen there's only so much they can do to make it happen. I went to an interesting seminar that CLG held, up in Leeds, to discuss various social investment and community finance initiatives and led a discussion on banking reform. There were other discussions on community shares, social return on investment, asset transfer and payment for public service outcomes. There is widespread support for a CRA, but it also has its critics.

Talking of support, I had a nice email from Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project, lending his weight to the campaign. And the list of supporters continues to grow - as does the list of signatories to our petition - but please don't stop encouraging people to join us. A CRA is only going to happen in the UK if there is widespread popular support for it among the (voting) public. To achieve that we are all going to have to start making a lot of noise... So what are you waiting for? Get your loudhailers out and start shouting!