We tried to get government funding for our travel to European committees in the interests of British industry.

Our representatives’ companies were all funding the travel and subsistence costs of sending men to meetings – often in Munich - while our own organisation from time to time laid on meeting rooms and meals for the overseas representatives when meetings were held in London.

All our many 1970’s investigations into government funding failed, providing no financial help to us in trying to increase overseas trade by easing the path to the export of fire systems.

We were at this time running at a significant loss, and for ’72 had needed to shorten our false alarms survey, intended to run for a year, down to 6 months, slash our advertising budget by at least 75%, and restrict the number of Members’ meetings to the AGM plus one.

We even considered resigning from Euralarm, being always a little doubtful about its costs versus its benefits. We decided to retain the subscription if it could be reduced (not all nations pay the same rate).

The FIA is now on a much sounder financial footing investing 5% of its turnover on research projects.

We remain Euralarm members.