Child Trust Funds (Amendment) Regulations 2009

Temptation abounds; I have two invitations to engage in a major economic debate on the Government’s savings strategy. I shall forswear that opportunity. I heard what the noble Lord, Lord Howard, had to say. Of course, he takes many opportunities to be critical of the Government, and I suppose that this is one. However, his party supports the child trust fund and I know that he sees some, if not all, of the merits, of which I elaborated on four. He will agree with several of them, particularly those about increasing the propensity to save and the increase in financial literacy among young people. He will be four-square behind that. I assume that he wants to put this measure into the context of the dire economic situation using a different strategy: if, like the noble Lord, Lord Razzall, I can identify what that different strategy might be. It might be to lament the drop in interest rates. That is an interesting economic proposition. I am politician. I understand the concern of the noble Lord, Lord Howard, about savers. Of course, we must be concerned about those on fixed incomes, as the Government are. That is, however, a little different from suggesting that the Government have somehow got their strategy wrong in the present economic circumstances, and that the Bank of England has misjudged the matter in thinking that the economy requires lower interest rates. If the British economy does not require lower interest rates, I wonder what he thinks is going on in the United States of America. We must not indulge in these opportunities. After all, my task is to get extremely benign regulations through. I commend the regulations to the Committee. Motion agreed.