Building Societies Act 1986 (Amendment) Bill

Lord Naseby Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 10th May 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Naseby (Con)]

My Lords, it is a particularly exciting morning as far as I am concerned. I got up, the sun was shining; I then heard that, thanks to my Government, we are out of recession; and the icing on the cake is this particular Private Member’s Bill. It is a very exciting Bill because the building society movement is a dynamic element in our society. We see that at every level today and, as we move forward, I reflect a little on the fact that I took through this House one of the few other mutual Private Members’ Bills in my more than 25 years in this part of our Parliament, the Mutuals’ Deferred Shares Act. That was done with the support of the Government of the day, as this one has been, and that is very exciting.

I had the privilege, as noble Lords will know, of doing my national service training as a pilot in Canada. It was the first time, as a young man, that I took out a very small savings account, in the depths of the prairies just outside Moose Jaw, with a credit union. That was my first experience and I was delighted, when I was elected as the Member for Northampton South, to find that there was an active credit union there as well. Of course, the building societies themselves are much more than those relatively smaller areas of the mutual savings market. I had the privilege of being chairman of the Tunbridge Wells Equitable Friendly Society, now the Children’s Mutual, and that element too needs some help in the future.

The important part of this Bill is that the Building Societies Association has been lobbying for changes for some considerable time. I say a huge and sincere thank you to my noble friends on the Front Bench: my noble friend Lady Penn when she was there and now my noble friend today. They have both listened and have now acted, and that is a huge step forward for the whole mutual movement. When we look at the market on the ground, yes, it has been a difficult time for the United Kingdom, but which is the sector of the savings market that is not closing branches and making life very difficult for the citizens of the United Kingdom? The one area that is not closing branches is the building societies.

I happen to bank with the Nationwide, which is the biggest of them, but there are a considerable number of building societies, all of which are really active in the savings market. I say well done to them for coming through this difficult period. If we look at mortgages in recent times that are helping younger couples get on the housing ladder, we see that the vast majority come through the building societies movement. I do not need to go through the Bill in any detail. I will just thank my noble friend on the Front Bench and His Majesty’s Government for picking up what has been quite a long journey to get to this stage, and my noble friend on the Opposition Bench for his skill in taking the Bill through and for paying tribute to the Member of Parliament in the other place for picking it up as well.

All I will say, finally, is that the Bill has my wholehearted support and I will do anything possible at any time, any hour, to make sure that it gets on the statute book.