Financial Services: Mansion House Speech

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Tulip Siddiq]

My hon. Friend will know that I can never resist an ice cream, so I probably will visit after all. Places such as JP Morgan, which employs 4,000 people in the financial services industry, are vital to us. One of the things that the Chancellor’s speech built on was the significant steps that the Government are already taking to enhance the competitiveness of our financial services sector. We want to look at the biggest changes to the UK’s listings regime in more than three decades and—my hon. Friend will be familiar with this—deliver the final stages of the post-crisis capital reforms to banks. With our financial services growth and competitiveness strategy, which I hope my hon. Friend will write to us on, we want to give the industry certainty and the confidence to invest. That is the main thing that the financial services sector wants right now, and people in Bournemouth will probably agree with that. I look forward to that ice cream.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the Minister for her statement. We must welcome the news that London edges closer to New York as a financial hub. However, the Minister is aware that growth happens only if we attract investment. I believe that the decision to pool pension funds into larger investment vehicles is a bold one, yet the Chancellor must ensure that guarantees are in place, so that the mega-pool of pensions does not go down the drain, and that guardrails are in place to safeguard the nation’s pension pots.

[Tulip Siddiq]

I reassure the hon. Gentleman that boosting return for savers is at the very heart of this agenda, which is why we are pursuing this pensions review. We want these reforms to increase security and boost people’s pension pots, and we want to unlock about £80 billion of productive investment. The Government’s reforms are already in the pension schemes Bill, and they could boost a typical defined contribution saver’s lifetime pension pot by £11,000. I do not want the hon. Gentleman to worry, because we have our eye on how to protect pensioners and savers.