A leading City firm is writing to every regional paper in the country offering to launch financial advice columns specially tailored to their readers – for free.

Hargreaves-Lansdown, a FTSE-250 financial services company, is offering to set up Q&A columns dealing with issues such as retirement, pensions, tax and investment.

It is also offering to source and produce local case studies to illustrate the problems faced by people in these areas, again free of charge.

The initiative is being spearheaded by John Fox-Clinch, a former deputy business editor of the Western Daily Press who also spent 20 years in Fleet Street, mainly on the Daily Express.

John began writing to regional editors last week outlining his proposal.

“As a lifelong newspaper journalist I know how difficult it is to source – and afford on tight budgets – services like the one we are proposing.” he told HoldtheFrontPage.

“We know from client response to our website that there is a real hunger for financial guidance out there and we would like to help meet that need.

“While there is no such thing as a free lunch I think our offer comes close since all we seek in return is acknowledgement of the source of the copy, possibly a logo together with brief contact details.”

John added: “There would be no question of pushing our own services or products above anybody else’s. The success of our business is based upon our freedom to give independent, unbiased information, and that’s what we’re offering.”

Hargreaves Lansdown has more than 350,000 active clients and is one of Britain’s largest providers of investment funds, handling £10bn in assets for clients.