Champion of consumers’ rights and editor of Which? magazine who served as director of the National Consumer CouncilMaurice Healy, who has died aged 86, made a real and practical difference to consumers’ lives and to how governments, businesses, regulators and the media finally learned to put consumers and public service users first. He spent more than 40 years knowing which levers to pull and how best to pull them to achieve results.
In 1960, an interview panel was puzzled as to why Maurice, a young, Cambridge-educated classicist at the Board of Trade was prepared to renounce the prospect of a stellar career for the role of project officer at Which? magazine, the shaky infant that had recently been launched by the charismatic social entrepreneur, Michael Young. Maurice explained that he could see the next 35 years mapped out in the civil service and would prefer something more intellectually exciting and challenging.