It can take six months for the FCA to assign a case officer to an application.  A recent change of legal status applicaiton - probably the simplest of all applications, took just under a year for the FCA to approve.  You think that is bad?  A recent statement from Wiltshire County Council said that any application to footpaths would cost £3k and take 2.5 years just to get a case officer. 

Truly, something is very wrong post covid in various areas, and parts of the public sector has slumped to a near halt. 

Britain isn’t working, but practitioners in the UK retail financial services can compare the FCA favourably to similar organisations in other countries and other public bodies.