10-year court case which proved importance of determination

THERE is something incongruous about the headquarters of Sovereign Health Care in Bradford that matches its chief executive quite well.

The home of the 140-year-old cash plan provider is an impressive stone building  which stands alone, and easy to overlook because of the retail park on the opposite side of Manningham Lane.

Londoner Russ Piper, who has been at Sovereign for nine years and in charge for the last six, is also quietly impressive, although it takes a bit of time to get used to his talkative yet understated manner.

Having spent a few minutes talking about his school days in north London – “I left school at 16,” he said, “there was a pub on the corner where we were served with our school uniforms on: my results suffered” – the conversation eventually came full circle two hours later when he mentioned that his classmates included Gary Kemp and Steve Norman, who formed a school band that became Spandau Ballet.

He has a habit of delivering information in the same friendly matter-of-fact tone regardless of subject matter.

There was the first time he arrived in Bradford, in 1989 to see his wife-to-be who he met on holiday in Crete, when having got the train from Kings Cross to Forster Square he remembered thinking “where the bloody hell are we?”. Then there was the time he got five numbers on the National Lottery, with the elusive sixth number being the difference between £1,700 and £2.4m.

And there was the time he spent 10 years suing the Royal Free Hospital after his eldest son Jack, who suffers from autism and serious learning disabilities, had his bowels perforated during a colonoscopy. Although he wasn’t expected to survive, gravely ill with serious infections including encephalitis, he pulled though after staying in Great Ormond Street Hospital for three months before being moved to Jimmy’s.

“I learned so much about myself, my self-confidence changed.” he said, about the legal action. “If you are determined, you can achieve a lot.

“You just get on with it. You take the view that things happen and you either let them bury you or you get on with it.

“The bottom line is you have a choice.”

The notions of choice and responsibility are woven through much of the conversation, such as when he was recalling advice he has received in his career, he recounted a conversation with a senior colleague which included the warning “with the level we are at, our decisions touch people’s lives”.

Mr Piper’s strategy for Sovereign has been one of evolution, not revolution, but he did have to address declining customer numbers when he became chief executive in 2009.

“The business is in really, really good financial shape. We used to have a surplus of £800,000-£1m each year but we were losing customers quite quickly.

“Between 2002 and 2009 the best we had done was lose net 1,700 customers and the worst was 4,500.

“We have taken a conscious decision to put more money back into the business. Our trading surplus has fallen but in the last few years we have actually grown.”

The company’s investment portfolio and cash deposits are worth around £53m and it uses its dividend income to help fund the Sovereign Health Care Charitable Trust, which received £820,000 in 2014 to pass on to charities and good causes, a part of the business of which Mr Piper is clearly proud.

He is also animated about a campaign he has launched to lobby for a tax reform. He wants to see policies funded by businesses, on behalf of their employees, no longer treated as taxable benefits which have to be declared annually to HM Revenue & Customs on P11D forms.

“The tax treatment of cash plans is illogical, particularly when you consider that if a business pays up to £500 to fund recommended medical treatment to help an employee return to work after illness or injury, this is exempt from income tax and therefore not classed as a P11D benefit,” he said.

“Cash plans, on the other hand, which encourage people to be proactive about their health care to try and avoid being off sick in the first place, and being a burden on the NHS, are taxed.”

He has met MPs and is encourgaed by suppport he has received, although is not expecting immediate success. However he is a man not put off by lengthy battles and will continue to “chip away” to make progress.

Mr Piper is clear on the other priorities for the business.

“The next year or two is completing the implementation of our IT system and getting it bedded down,” he said.

“Then we will look at our structures, we need to make sure we have the right people.

“Then it will be ‘how do we look to increase the pace of growth?’.”

And for himself he is happy to see what happens.

“I am 56 in November. Will I stay at Sovereign until I retire or will I look to do something else?,” he said. “My simple answer is there are some specific things I want to do here and I will make those happen.”