Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Debate between Baroness Pitkeathley and Lord Teverson

Monday 3rd December 2012 Grand Committee

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Pitkeathley)]

Amendment proposed:

“Page 3, line 10, at end insert”,

the words as printed—but not quite as printed, because there is a typo in the fourth line. After:

“The Secretary of State shall consult the Bank of England”,

we need to insert the word “on” before,

“granting the Bank access to the Quantitative Easing programme”.

[Lord Teverson]

I had not noted that. Perhaps I should change my whole speech because of it.

The whole area of bonds issuance is important. In fact, it was looked at in some depth by the Environmental Audit Committee in the other place, together with green ISAs. It is a method, which I know the Government and the Treasury are very keen on, to use money from pension schemes in particular to invest in the UK and in areas of quick growth. Although I am sure that my noble friend the Minister will go through the whole question of whether these would be government-guaranteed bonds and the effect that would have on the public accounts, I believe that this is an important area of fundraising. It is one that could, with the length of investment in these sorts of projects, appeal very much to the pension industry and pension funds, which have large amounts of money, as we know, to invest successfully. This would be a good way of moving forward and I am sure that the Government have considered it a great deal.

I would like to ask the Minister whether the Government have thought further about the area of green ISAs and about involving not just fund managers and corporates, as one would do with bonds, but ordinary people to support the purposes of this bank. I note that some 18 million people have ISAs at the moment. That is one in three adults. Some £220 billion is invested by individuals in ISAs, which clearly have all sorts of tax breaks that are attractive to individual savers. Both these financial instruments could really make a difference in terms of the Green Investment Bank and green ISAs. You could get a public and personal commitment to this cause and create extra employment and growth in the UK.