Consumer Credit

Lord Elystan-Morgan Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wilcox]

I am aware of the debate this afternoon in another place and shall be interested to hear what comes out of it. I am interested in what the noble Lord said, but for the moment I cannot comment because the review is not out.

[Lord Elystan-Morgan]

While I appreciate the efforts made by Her Majesty's Government in relation to credit unions, does the Minister not agree that the scale has to be upped very considerably? In the Republic of Ireland, 50 per cent of personal credit is through credit unions. In Canada and Australia, the figure is roughly 20 per cent, but in this country it is only 0.5 per cent.

[Baroness Wilcox]

We have tried for years to interest the British and Northern Irish public in credit unions. It is just something that we never seem to have got the general public to sign up to. I know that in Canada and Germany credit unions are regarded as a wonderful idea, and so they are. You put your money in and can take a little bit out. It is a very simple system. In fact, I think one of the most successful credit unions in London at the moment is the black cab credit union. It does not take more than 12 people to get together to form one. It may be that this is a good advertisement, yet again, for credit unions.