Oral Answers to Questions

Emma Reynolds Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alex Mayer (Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard) (Lab)]

1. What steps she plans to take to encourage saving.

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Emma Reynolds)]

The Government are committed to supporting people to save and invest, and we want to build a better investment culture. Currently, 85% of people with savings income do not pay tax on it. As we announced at the Budget from next month, we will expand the help to save scheme to all universal credit claimants in work.

[Alex Mayer]

The nation’s favourite way to save is through premium bonds. Does the Minister think that they are good for the country and a valuable way of encouraging saving? For everyone who has them, they are quite exciting every month.

[Emma Reynolds]

I think that premium bonds do provide excitement, not least in my parents’ household, where they are very popular. They are already well promoted and popular, and we have seen annual investments in premium bonds increase by more than 50% since March 2019. The funds raised through them go towards supporting vital public services.

[John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the Government’s commitment to extend the help to save scheme, which has been running for seven years. Martin Lewis describes it as

“a very clever scheme and one that will work for many people.”

May I urge the Minister to look at what needs to be done to raise awareness of it, because the actual uptake is very low, given that the Government have been giving £1,200 over four years? It is critical that the right investment in promoting it happens, because it is such a brilliant scheme.

[Emma Reynolds]

I could not agree with one of my predecessors more. The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely correct. It is a great scheme and now that we are expanding it, we will take that opportunity to promote it better.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Select Committee.

[Dame Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)]

We all know how important it is to encourage savings, because so many people are a paycheque away from poverty, but there has been a lot of discussion about lazy capital in cash-only ISAs, for example, and other savings accounts. I know there is a drive by Government to see greater investment. Would the Minister like to expand on the Government’s thoughts on that? In particular, can she make any comments about the security of the cash ISA?

[Emma Reynolds]

Cash savings provide a vital source of savings for a rainy day, and we recognise that. Equally, we want to build a better investment culture in our society, so that it is not just the 8% of people who can afford financial advice who can have the opportunity of better rewards by investing in British companies and others in our economy.

[Mr Peter Bedford (Mid Leicestershire) (Con)]

On that point, it has been widely reported that the Chancellor is planning to slash the amount of cash that savers can save in ISAs from £20,000 to £4,000 a year. Will the Chancellor rule out this punitive measure, which will see savings drop and push even more people into income tax?

[Emma Reynolds]

We are committed to promoting savings and investment, as I said in an earlier answer. One measure we are looking at is the Financial Conduct Authority’s review of the advice guidance boundary. As I said in a previous answer, I do not want it just to be the 8% of people who can afford financial advice who reap the rewards of investing in our economy. We keep all taxes under review.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) (Con)]

The City of London has been a leader of innovation in the world of finance and savings for a few hundred years now, and it has been successful because it has always seized opportunities and innovation when presented. In that spirit, we are pleased that the Chancellor in her Mansion House speech embraced the concept of securities tokenisation, but we now find that the catalyst for this innovation in the UK—a pilot for the digital gilt instrument known as DIGIT—has found itself in a two-year black hole. Innovation is not something that can hang around for two years, so will the Minister give assurances that she will do everything she can to deliver DIGIT as soon as possible?

[Emma Reynolds]

That sounds like a criticism of the previous Government. I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that we are committed to innovation and to DIGIT.

[Louise Jones (North East Derbyshire) (Lab)]

2. What steps she has taken to help increase economic growth in the east midlands.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Emma Reynolds)]

My hon. Friend is a fantastic campaigner for the breweries in his constituency. We want the drinks sector to go from strength to strength. We are reviewing the responses to the consultation on the threshold that my hon. Friend mentioned.

[Freddie van Mierlo (Henley and Thame) (LD)]

T3. Oxfordshire has no night-time cover for palliative care, which means that patients must dial 111 and wait hours for urgent pain relief to arrive. Will the Minister commit to increasing funding to the Department of Health and Social Care so integrated care boards, including the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB, can deliver palliative care round the clock?

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

What are this Government doing to ensure innovation in UK tech companies, such as Kao Park in my constituency, so that they can drive economic growth as part of world-class AI computer ecosystems?

[Emma Reynolds]

Harlow is home to one of the UK’s largest supercomputers. We are taking forward the AI action plan and we also have the tech adoption review, which will look at how we can unlock the potential of AI in our high-growth sectors.

[Sir Oliver Dowden (Hertsmere) (Con)]

T9.   Attracting high net worth individuals to spend more time in the United Kingdom drives jobs, growth and, crucially, tax revenues, but unfortunately the opposite is happening in the UK right now. Will the Chancellor use the spring statement to look at the statutory residence test and, in particular, the ties rules to see whether we can incentivise people to spend more time in the UK, not the other way around?

--- Later in debate ---

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

My constituent is one of hundreds of people who suffered from the collapse of Collateral. While the Financial Conduct Authority has apologised to investors for failing to act faster to stop Collateral’s fraudulent activities, I am concerned that, without internal changes, the FCA will make similar mistakes again. Should there not be an investigation into the FCA’s handling of the case?

[Emma Reynolds]

I am happy to meet the hon. Lady and look at the case she mentions, because I need to get more detail.

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

The Transport Committee has looked at the economic growth case for the Heathrow expansion and has heard conflicting evidence on the project’s growth impact on regions away from London and the south-east, and also on other carbon-using sectors. Will the Chancellor ask Heathrow Airport to release the full text of the Frontier Economics report on which she made her decision to expand Heathrow?