Sandy Leitch, Lord Leitch, who has died aged 76, was a prominent City figure over four decades. He became a valuable link between Tony Blair’s government and the financial services industry.
The son of a miner, Leitch was steadfast in his Labour loyalties as he pursued a glittering business career that led him, in the 1990s, to become chief executive of the insurance group Allied Dunbar (later Zurich Financial Services UK), as well as chair of the Association of British Insurers.
Close to both Blair and Gordon Brown, in 2000 he became chair of the New Deal taskforce, which had been entrusted with delivery of a key manifesto pledge, to tackle long-term and youth unemployment in partnership with the private sector, with funding raised through a levy on the privatised utilities.
Leitch had a passion for upgrading the skills of the UK workforce, particularly among young people. This led him to be appointed chair of the National Employment Panel in 2002. He was then asked by Brown to lead a major review of the skills required to develop a successful economy and provide routes out of poverty.
The landmark Leitch report in 2006 concluded that Britain faced “a lingering decline in competitiveness, diminishing economic growth and a bleaker future for all” unless skills were improved. It set “stretching targets” in areas such as literacy and qualifications, forming a template for radical changes in training and vocational education policies as well as the merger of several bodies to form the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, which survived until 2017.
Brown said of him: “Many people who have not had the privilege of knowing Sandy, and many people who may not even know his name, have led more fulfilled lives as a result of all he has done and achieved.”
Leitch was made a peer in 2004, and in the Lords spoke rarely but effectively, drawing on his experience in financial services. In 2007, he warned presciently: “The stark reality is that the UK is witnessing steady deterioration and erosion of the number of people on track to live a secure and comfortable retirement. We are a nation divided by our propensity and our ability to save. Too many consumers either simply have no idea about the levels of saving required for a comfortable retirement or they live in disturbing ignorance of the financial reality for even a very modest retirement”.
Leitch was the youngest of four children, and was born in Blairhall, West Fife, to Donald Leitch and his wife Nancy (nee Park). He was 18 months old when his father died from Addison’s disease at the age of 35, and his mother had to work gruelling hours as a cleaner to make ends meet. Sandy’s formative years remained key to his core personal values – compassion, integrity and a strong work ethic.
He was educated at Dunfermline high school, and his Scottish Higher results qualified him for university by the time he was 16, but the family’s finances ruled this out and instead he went to London in 1965 to become a £12-a-week computer programmer with National Mutual Life, just as Harold Wilson’s “white heat of technology” was about to take off and computer skills became highly valued.
From National Mutual he moved to the fledgling Hambro Life, where he was responsible for designing all the company’s computer systems. He remained in the insurance industry for much of his career. Among many roles, he chaired the health provider Bupa from 2005 till 2018 and from 2012 he chaired the wealth management platform FNZ, helping to steer it from modest beginnings to become a world leader in financial technology.
Leitch devoted much of his time to charity and public service. He worked closely with the then Prince of Wales on Business in the Community and was presented with the Prince of Wales Ambassador award for charitable work in 2001. He was a trustee of the Philharmonia Orchestra and of the National Gallery of Scotland.
He was a Freeman of the City of London and, just as proudly, chancellor of Carnegie College in Dunfermline. Leitch remained a lifelong supporter of Dunfermline Athletic FC.
He suffered from ill-health for much of his adult life, and nearly died at the age of 32 when he was found to be suffering from sarcoidosis, a rare condition that plays havoc with the immune system. He overcame numerous life-threatening illnesses with determination and good humour, before being diagnosed with leukaemia earlier this year.
He is survived by his second wife, Noelle (nee Dowd), whom he married in 2003, and their two sons, Alexander and Hector, and daughter, Kathleen; and by three daughters, Fiona, Joanne and Jacqueline, from his first marriage, to Valerie Hodson, which ended in divorce in 1992, and six grandchildren.
• Alexander Park Leitch, Lord Leitch, businessman and politician, born 20 October 1947; died 5 October 2024
