Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to support access to credit unions; and if he will make a statement.

The government is committed to supporting access to credit unions, which provide vital services to financially underserved communities and contribute to the diversity of the UK’s financial services sector. The government has done this by:

• Announcing at Autumn Budget 2017, that where a credit union’s membership conditions are based on locality, a credit union will be able to increase the number of potential members it can have from 2 to 3 million.

• Contributing £600,000 to an initiative developed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Young Enterprise, to start savings clubs in primary schools and educate young children in the benefits of saving. Lifesavers works with local credit unions to help run savings clubs in schools.

• Contracting the Association of British Credit Unions Limited to deliver the Credit Union Expansion Project, which aims to modernise and grow credit unions in a sustainable way, enabling them to offer additional financial services to their members.

• Announcing at Autumn Statement 2016 that, from 2018, a scheme which incentivises credit union membership in communities at risk of being targeted by loan sharks, will be expanded. This uses funds recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act from convicted loan sharks.