HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : We Want to Build the Savings Culture – Alistair Darling [December 2022]
The press release issued by the Treasury on 3 December 1997.
“We want to encourage people to save and invest. We want to build the savings culture. That is good for individuals. It is good for businesses and it is therefore good for the country as a whole,” the Chief Secretary Alistair Darling said at the Proshare Annual Awards dinner in London tonight.
Highlighting the new Individual Savings Account he said:
“Everyone should have the opportunity to provide for themselves – whether they are saving for their future, for their retirement or simply for a rainy day.
ISAs are aimed at encouraging everyone to save. They will be simple, flexible and accessible – something everyone wants and will get.
Our objective is to develop a tax system for savings which benefits the many and not just the few. Half the adult population don’t save. So everyone should have the opportunity to save in a tax-favoured environment, however small the amounts they are able to put aside.
As we promised in our manifesto the ISA builds on the experience of PEPs and TESSAs. That is why investments in ISAs will be tax-free.
We spend 1.3 billion Pounds on tax relief under the present system – rising to 1.7 billion Pounds in 2001-02. Much of this goes to those who can already afford to save significant amounts and to tie their savings up for long periods of time. That isn’t an efficient use of public money. Our objective is to bring in new savers.
Far better and fairer to use the existing provision to bring the benefits of ISAs to a much wider population of savers – possibly encouraging 6 million new savers. That is right in principle and it is fair.”
On investment, he added:
“We must expand our economic capacity and create the right climate for high levels of investment. That is why we have reformed the corporation tax system, removing the distortions that hinder long term, high quality investment. In the last Budget we cut
corporation tax to the lowest level ever. And we intend to cut the main rate again when ACT is abolished in 1999. This further enhances our position as the country with the lowest rate of corporation tax of any major industrialised country and one of the lowest tax burdens on business.”
