Axe the Reading Tax – The Publishers Association

Government Relations and Public Affairs, Campaigns and Advocacy, PR and Media Relations

The Challenge

We were hired by The Publishers Association to run a campaign to secure the removal of VAT on e-publications, which would bring it in line with printed publications.

Our Strategy

Our integrated media and public affairs campaign used a variety of creative and traditional tactics, including:

• A Parliamentary ‘drop in’ event leading to gaining 150 parliamentary supporters
• An open letter from 700 authors including Stephen Fry, Bernadine Evaristo, Cressida Cowell, Joanne Harris and Val McDermid which led national print and broadcast coverage
• Identifying parliamentary champions including Robert Halfon MP who led the campaign in Parliament
• Forming a wide coalition of supporters including the RNIB to highlight the impact of the tax on blind and visually impaired people.

The Result

In his first Budget in 2020, then Chancellor Rishi Sunak MP announced the removal of VAT from all e-publications.

“I am so grateful to Tendo for their tireless energy and enthusiasm working on the Axe the Reading Tax Campaign and their invaluable help building a coalition of supporters for an end to this unfair tax in the Commons.

“Tendo know how to build a coalition of support from the grassroots all the way to Westminster, using both modern digital media and state of the art networking and campaigning.”

Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP

BHTA: Building the parliamentary profile of the MedTech industry

Government Relations and Public Affairs

The Challenge

We were tasked by the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA), a trade body representing over 400 businesses across 12 industries in the Medical Technologies sector, to enhance the sector’s presence in Parliament and within the policy landscape at Westminster. Suppliers and manufacturers of essential medical equipment, crucial for both acute and social care settings, have been under particular pressure in recent years owing to major regulatory and financial changes in the MedTech space. Given BHTA’s strength in representing a broad base of SMEs, which form the backbone of medical supply in the UK, our mission was to raise the sector’s profile from a policy perspective and foster stronger connections with parliamentarians and key stakeholders.

Our Strategy

We put together a public affairs programme designed to build an initial pool of parliamentary ‘allies’ who are active in the MedTech policy space in order to better communicate the raft of policy solutions being offered by the sector to tackle current regulatory and financial barriers impacting both businesses and patients. We also worked closely with the BHTA on their headline Manifesto, an in-depth policy document outlining the sector’s priorities and proposed solutions. 

As key starting point to secure a parliamentary legacy for the Manifesto involved a flagship Parliamentary reception and Manifesto launch held in Westminster. Following this, we supported the BHTA with detailed briefings sent to Parliamentarians ahead of relevant debates, helped schedule standalone meetings, created briefing notes to civil servants with more policy proposals ahead of key stages in relevant legislative agendas. A key aspect of our strategy was leveraging the BHTA’s extensive membership base by facilitating constituency visits, where individual members could connect directly with their local MPs. These visits were designed to build stronger relationships between the BHTA and key MPs over the long term. 

The Result

The BHTA have become a readily recognised voice in Parliament and the MedTech policy space, being especially notable in their ability to communicate the interests of SMEs operating in the sector. The BHTA’s Parliamentary Manifesto launch was attended by over 50 MPs and featured keynote interventions from two Health and Shadow Health Ministers. Over the course of the following year, we further supported the BHTA with more than 15 individual meetings and 10 constituency visits. Our work drafting and circulating BHTA briefings to Parliamentarians for topical debates have resulted in BHTA member concerns being raised directly across both Houses of Parliament, including the BHTA being mentioned at least twice by name in Parliamentarian speeches.

To amplify the BHTA’s voice, we have supported on a number of national and trade media pieces often on technical issues. The BHTA has a code of conduct that industry is meant to abide by, and we have utilised this code to establish the BHTA as a thought leader in the field of MedTech. We’ve had 21 pieces featured in the trade press, and were featured in a front-page story on the Financial Times regarding UKCA marks on medical devices.

End Frozen Pensions campaign: Supporting British Overseas Pensioners

Government Relations and Public Affairs – PR and Media Relations – Campaign and Advocacy

The Challenge

Nearly half a million British pensioners residing in some countries overseas do not currently benefit from the yearly, inflation-linked increases to the UK state pension, meaning they receive a state pension that effectively remains ‘frozen’. Supporting the End Frozen Pensions campaign, representing the interests of those impacted worldwide, Tendo provide public relations and political engagement support to raise both the public profile of the campaign and secure backing from a core group of parliamentarians in Westminster, both with the aim of challenging the Government on this longstanding policy.

Our Strategy

Our public and political engagement programme has been focused on communicating the deep sense of injustice and unequal treatment felt by a majority of British overseas pensioners who are impacted by the policy. In engaging with the media, our strategy has been to turn this issue into a human interest story focused on British pensioners themselves, as well as its resulting political and diplomatic tensions, away from the campaign’s ‘natural’ media presence in personal finance sections.

To communicate this perceived injustice, we have focused on telling the story of Anne Puckridge, a World War Two veteran whose pension has been ‘frozen’ since her move to Canada in 2001. Her story has been a central feature in over 40 national publications since 2022 alone. The raised media profile of the campaign has enabled us to engaged more effectively in a parliamentary context, building a core group of parliamentary supporters who now consistently attend campaign events and raise the issue in spoken contributions in both the House of Commons and House of Lords. Thanks to the campaign’s regular parliamentary backers, the policy issue has been raised more than 40 times across both Houses since 2020.

We have sought to engage with other key political allies on this issue given the diplomatic implications of the policy, with a number of Governments of impacted countries now regularly raising this issue in formal diplomatic channels. In order to do this, we have gained close working relationships with both the Australian and Canadian High Commissions in London.

The Result

Tendo’s focused approach to parliamentary engagement, using the media to raise awareness and the campaign’s overall profile, has successfully created a large pool of support among parliamentarians since the 2024 General Election. More than 50 Parliamentarians attended a campaign Parliamentary event in October 2024. The event preceded the delivery of a letter to Number 10 Downing Street calling on the Government to address the policy, that was signed by an unprecedented 150 Parliamentarians from both the UK and Canada, including the Canadian Minister for Pensions.

BVRLA and Enterprise Mobility: Delivering Mobility Credits

Government Relations and Public Affairs

The Challenge

We were tasked by the British Vehicle, Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) and Enterprise Rent-a-Car to promote their concept of mobility credits to political audiences with a view to securing Central Government funding for a local mobility credits pilot.

Our Strategy 

We put together a full public affairs and political engagement programme, which included drafting a fully costed policy proposal that focused on the environmental savings and secured meetings with and support from Special Advisers at No10 and civil servants at DfT, BEIS and CCAV.

Alongside this, we also liaised with potential pilot partners including the Mayor of the West Midlands and his team to discuss how a pilot would operate in practice.

The Results

As result of our engagement and activity, the then Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street announced that the West Midlands would be the first ‘Future Mobility Area’. This was followed by the Chancellor announcing funding for ‘Future Mobility Zones’ and Coventry City Council undertaking a full pilot of mobility credits.

Eodex and Stop Sea Blasts: Changing policy on unexploded ordnance disposal

Campaign and Advocacy, PR and Media Relations, Government Relations and Public Affairs

The Challenge

Over 100,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance lie in waters around the UK, a legacy of the First and Second World Wars. These bombs, mines and shells must be cleared to allow for the safe construction of offshore wind farms. However the most common method of removing old munitions has been detonation – simply blowing them up.

For marine life, this disruption could be deadly – marine mammals are particularly vulnerable to noise trauma which can cause deafness, disorientation and, in the worst cases, mass stranding events.

The Tendo team was funded by Eodex Limited and supported by a number of leading marine conservation charities to set up the ‘Stop the Sea Blasts’ campaign, which called for leftover WWII bombs to be cleared using a new military-based technology called low-order deflagration can remove munitions from the sea floor without an explosion, allowing for the safe disposal of old munitions without damage to the marine environment.

Our Strategy 

The Tendo team implemented an intensive programme of reactive and proactive media engagement with the goal of raising awareness of the issue within Government and harnessing public opinion to persuade the relevant departments to act in our favour. We secured Joanna Lumley as the leading face of the campaign and achieved significant media coverage with hits in national outlets such as the Guardian, Daily Mail, ITV News, The BBC, The Telegraph, The Times, The Express, The Independent along with significant regional coverage and broadcast appearances on the Jeremy Vine Show BBC Radio 4 GB News Sky News, among others. A report from the NPL was mentioned in almost all of the press coverage of the campaign.

Through a public affairs programme, we drove parliamentary support through briefing sessions and roundtables with disposal experts, marine organisations and Dame Joanna. We supported Eodex to engage directly with officials at Defra to offer a constructive, workable and politically-appealing solution to the problem.

The Results

We successfully took an important issue with almost no public or parliamentary profile and, within twelve months, boosted it up the political agenda to achieve change.

The campaign proved to be successful after 1 year of active media and government engagement, with then Environment Secretary George Eustice agreeing to back the cause following a meeting with Joanna Lumley. The decision to opt for the use of new technology was indicated in November 2021 with the publication of a policy paper backing the use of ‘lower noise alternatives’ instead of ‘high order detonations.’

We are proud to have worked alongside EODEX to launch and run the award-winning Stop Sea Blasts campaign, securing policy change to protect marine mammals from the impact of unexploded ordnance disposal.

Airports UK: Public Affairs and PR support during the global pandemic

Government Relations and Public Affairs, PR and Media Relations

The Challenge

With the UK under a national lockdown, UK airports were under intense pressure as they looked to manage the economic, social and political fallout of global aviation being closed, followed by passenger numbers falling to their lowest levels in history because of a series of restrictions on international travel.

The Tendo team was hired by the Airport Operators Association (now known as Airports UK) provide their 24-hour press office and to advise on political and ministerial engagement.

Our Strategy 

We implemented a programme of reactive and proactive media engagement to lead the calls for greater financial support, political attention and to build awareness of the devastating impacts of the pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions.

This included media sell-in, dealing with daily broadcast media requests, drafting opinion pieces and securing regular coverage, including front page leads in The Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Sun, The Times and Sunday Times, BBC News, Sky News, ITV News and regional media.

Through our political engagement, we secured a parliamentary debate on the financial impact of restrictions on English airports attended by MPs from across the political divide calling for greater business rates relief, as well securing regular political interventions. We also held a regular briefings for politicians and secured regular frontbench engagement and provided advice and counsel to the CEO and Chair.

The Results

During the key periods of the global pandemic, we ran an intensive media programme that secured over 250 pieces of national print coverage and regular appearances on key broadcast programmes including the Today programme and major news bulletins including the 6 and 10 news.

We also positioned the Chief Executive and Chair as thought leaders, securing regular interviews, profiles and opinion pieces including the Telegraph and The Times.

Our political engagement led to high levels of support from politicians across the divide and to the introduction of additional business rates relief, the removal of travel restrictions and reopening of international travel.

The National Oceanography Centre: Turning the tide on Climate Change

Government Relations and Public Affairs

Challenge

We began work with the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in 2021, with the aim of shifting the debate on oceans from being a victim of climate change to part of the solution. This followed NOC appointing its first in-house public affairs team following its privatisation in 2019.

Our Strategy 

Our strategy centred on two key objectives:

• Raising the profile of oceans in this Parliament and into the next
• Changing the terms of debate on oceans from being a victim to a part of the solution

We have quickly boosted NOC and the APPG for the Ocean to the centre of the political debate and secured NOC as a trusted adviser to parliamentarians and Government, leading to several demonstrable policy wins outlined below.

As a part of this, we provide the secretariat services to the APPG for the Ocean, which is chaired by Conservative MP Sally Ann-Hart. One of the central tenants of our approach was to conduct an inquiry into Blue Carbon and Ocean- Based Solutions to Climate Change and the vital role that the ocean plays in climate change adaptation and resilience.

This report, The Ocean: Turning the Tide on Climate Change, was launched in December at a private roundtable attended by leading academics and representatives from NOC, Blue Marine Foundation, Marine Biological Association, British Antarctic Survey and the University of Oxford, alongside key parliamentarians including former Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers MP, Labour frontbencher Kerry McCarthy MP, and APPG Chair Sally-Ann Hart MP.

The Result

Following the publication of the report, the Government took on board a number of its central recommendations, including:

• Announcing the first three marine areas in England (Allonby Bay, Northeast of Farnes Deep, and Dolphin Head) which will receive the highest level of protection for marine habitats and species.
• Mandating offshore Marine Protected Areas to have byelaws in place by the end of 2024 to protect sensitive species and habitats from bottom towed fishing gears.
• Consideration and further discussion of plans to include more aspects of marine carbon storage and sequestration into UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

This led Lord Goldsmith (then Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Minister) to brief the group on the Government’s response and priorities, followed by briefings from FCDO Minister Andrew Mitchell MP and DEFRA Minister Lord Benyon the High Seas Treaty.