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Finance Bill

I wish that my hon. Friend had taken part in the debate to make his point at greater length. This has been an opportunity for hon. Friends to make their point about savings and a number of our hon. Friends have talked about the plight of savers. Of course, the Opposition have put forward practical measures to help savers. That is why my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron) and the shadow Chancellor propose that there should be real help now for savers in this Budget. That is why we have proposed increasing the personal allowance for older people by £2,000 and scrapping the basic rate of tax on savings income for basic rate taxpayers. It would have helped those very people whom my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield (Sir Nicholas Winterton) was referring to, who are struggling to make ends meet because of low returns on their savings. And it would do more; it would send a clear message to people thinking about saving that there is value in saving for their future—a message about taking responsibility and preparing their lives for economic uncertainty. It would help recreate a savings culture in the UK after a decade of neglect by this Government, who seemed to see the low savings rate as a badge of honour. If the Government had welcomed our measures, it would have been a welcome boost for savings. But of course, unable to do the right thing, the Government resort to a gimmick. They have decided to increase the ISA limits for the over-50s this year to £10,200. That means that ISA providers will have to change their systems, introduce new procedures for checking people's age and introduce special marketing materials and application forms for the over-50s—all for one year only, because next year the Government will increase the ISA limit for everyone. Who on earth in Government came up with this hare-brained scheme to target the increase in ISAs on a small group of people, simply in search of a cheap headline on Budget day? That is one of the measures in the Budget that I think will actually put people off saving for their future. The Government did understand at one point that a simple, straightforward and flexible regime for pensions would actually encourage people to save. That was in the reforms set out in the Finance Act 2004. It set clear limits on how much people could put into their pensions and gave increased flexibility; it reflected the reality of people's lives. Every Finance Bill since 2006 has unpicked those reforms, making the regime for pensions more restrictive and complex. Every time a change is made, it sends a clear message to savers that they cannot rely on the certainty of the tax system when making plans for retirement. If people cannot trust the stability of the tax system, why should they lock up money for the long term? So the Government have ducked the challenge on savings, too. They have ignored the opportunity they had in this Budget to rebuild the savings culture in this country. In conclusion—