I now understand what my hon. Friend is saying. He is not trying to say that it is not the Big Lottery Fund or a little lottery fund—it is simply a diminishing lottery fund. I have now got the point.
As for the issue of taking the money out of the banks, the Government have missed a trick. The old-fashioned bank manager who knew the local community could be an asset for the Government because, rather than investing in normal loans for commercial profit, such banks could be allowed to retain some of that money and to lend either to social enterprise as part of their community support function, and follow that enterprise through or, indeed, go down the line of microcredit to pump-prime capital for microfinance and microcredit in the UK—a system that has been successful in developing countries elsewhere.
Finally, I should like to probe the Minister further about the differential treatment of dormant bank accounts. There is clearly a major difference between accounts that have £5, £50 or £50,000 in them, yet by my reading of it, the Bill deals with such accounts in very similar ways. I am not entirely sure that that is appropriate.
Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords]
Proceeding contribution from
James Duddridge
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Monday, 6 October 2008.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords].
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2007-08Chamber / Committee
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