Reeves doesn’t deny plan to slash cash ISA limit

I wouldn’t take advice from RR on how to open a bottle, let alone where I should invest my money…

🤣🤣🤣

English sparkling wine, I hope, GG13!

Allira

English sparkling wine, I hope, GG13!

Of course we have a vineyard about 30 minutes drive away, their rose blush sparkling is delicious.

I've just read this thread, which enlightened me that I have paid rather a lot of tax on my new car being delivered on Saturday, 1st March. I had no idea, I must live in a bubble. Maybe, seeing as posters were asking, that's the definition of being "wealthy"?!

Hang your head in shame! Stinking rich!

To be fair, stocks & shares ISAs offer a far better ROI over the long term. The chart here shows where a £10,000 investment made in 1999 would be now:

www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/articles/latest-thoughts/investing-success/when-to-choose-a-stocks-and-shares-isa-over-a-cash-isa

£10,000 into £50,000 after inflation compared to the value of the cash which inflation has eroded.

Moneyfacts reports that the average stocks & shares ISA experienced a growth of 11.86% between February 2024 and February 2025 compares to a rise of 2.80% between February 2023 and February 2024 and a negative return of -3.27% between February 2022 and February 2023.

So you need to be in for the long haul which isn’t going to suit some older people.

Nor is it a good time while there’s a madman in the White House panicking the markets but the stock market always recovers.

Personally, I think if Reeves is going to tinker, she should postpone until the US mid-terms and see where we are in terms of geo-politics.

Barleyfields

I agree, it’s not at all helpful. People earning the same money make different choices - some end up with little left to save, for others saving is a priority.

Reeves is a dictator, as is Starmer. She wants to make people invest in shares. She will have a rude awakening. If they wanted to take on that risk, especially at present, they would already be doing so. Better to risk having to pay some tax on interest than lose your investment.

In case you didn't realise, most people don't earn enough to be able to save £20,000 a year. They don't have a choice.

I can't get my brain round why people except some of the headlines on GN as reasonable.

Jaxjacky wrote that headline. If someone said to this member "Do you deny planning to to have a an affair with your neighbour" and the member didn't deny it, are we now to assume her guilty?

Barleyfields

Hang your head in shame! Stinking rich!

😆
At least my new car won't be stinking, it's an EV hybrid!

Why do we have to level down to what most people can afford to save growstuff? Are those who study and work their backsides off to be tethered to the circumstances (chosen or not) of others?

Because this is a change of investment culture that is being discussed in Parliament in general terms.

Lord Smith of Kelvin: We have heard in the evidence we have been given that, since the great events of 2008, regulators have adopted a risk-averse culture, which is reinforced by what some see as a lack of political cover if anything goes wrong. The Government are now telling regulators to adopt a higher risk appetite. How can you reconcile those two things?

Emma Reynolds: To be fair to the regulators, after the financial crash both Parliament and the Government were asking them to recalibrate, while setting up the FCA and the way it works now, so the regulators were being given a very different message back then, and the reasons for that are obvious.

How do we reconcile asking them to change their culture? I think there is recognition that, by seeking to eliminate risk—for example, why do we have hundreds of billions of pounds in cash ISAs?­—we have failed to drive an investment culture, as we see in other places, that allows people to invest their money. That is actually part of consumer protection; in a way, we have regulated so much that we are not protecting consumers against inflation. I read closely the evidence you were given by Chris Cummings of the Investment Association, and I think he said there were 15 million people with over £10,000 of cash.

What can we do together? I do not think this just about the regulators. What can we do together in Parliament about trying to drive an investment culture that realises cash is not a good investment, especially in a high-inflation environment? I feel like we have regulated ourselves into zero risk, and that is bad for consumers as well as for firms. So we are asking for recalibration, but we are not asking to go back to where we were in 2007-08.

Lord Vaux of Harrowden: ^ You just asked us the question, “What can we do together?” May I ask you that question?^

Emma Reynolds We are starting to have a discussion with the regulators, with you and with others in the other place about how we can create an investment culture. I personally prefer to talk about an investment culture, because if we have a risk-averse society then just talking up risk is not going to really help us. That is my personal view. We should talk about risk with the regulators, but if we are to create an investment culture then I think that has to sound much more positive.

committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/15347/html

Barleyfields

Why do we have to level down to what most people can afford to save growstuff? Are those who study and work their backsides off to be tethered to the circumstances (chosen or not) of others?

Agreed.

Also those who are frugal frugal and don't spend spend.

Everyone is of different circumstance.

Has she heard that phrase which wealth managers always have to trot out, ‘the value of your investment may go down as well as up’? She is treating the British public as fools.

I would like to tell RR that my stocks and shares ISA’s have decreased not increased like the example given above.

I disagree. The graph I linked to shows that £10,000 put into a cash investment in 1999 in now worth only £3,000 after inflation is taken into account. Shares would be worth £50,000 after inflation. That's what she's driving at.

Of course, people are suspicious because they, especially on this platform, like to knock the new Government but the points Reynolds is making are valid.

If you went to see an investment advisor and they asked, What do you want this £10,000 to be worth in 25 years time in terms of spending power? Who is going to choose £3,000 over £50,000?

Of course, people need to be aware of the risks of stock market investing and nobody should be forced into it.

We shall just have to see what happens. Right now it's all speculation.

GG. And with the way things are looking with Trump etc, the value will go down further. The illustration only showed growth over an extremely long period. I have owned and traded shares for many years and had stocks and shares ISAs. I have now extracted myself completely from the vagaries of the market (ahead of the CGT hike in the budget, of which there will imo be more) and am very pleased to have done so with Trump in power.

You can disagree Silverbrooks I know what my ISA’s have done and the ones that gave increased are no where near what you have posted.

In fact one has consistently lost, but hey ho…

25 years is a very long time Silverbrooks. No investment advisor would be likely to predict short term gains in the current global situation - and short term is all that is left for most of us here.

Barleylands we are in the process of transferring what we can into cash ISA’s the rest who knows 🤷‍♀️

I might just spend, spend, spend.

I think that’s wise GG. As I have already said, I am spending much more than usual but not on anything which will increase in value. In the past I have bought a couple of German cars direct from the manufacturer, and may do so again depending on the current importation rules.

Barleyfields

I think that’s wise GG. As I have already said, I am spending much more than usual but not on anything which will increase in value. In the past I have bought a couple of German cars direct from the manufacturer, and may do so again depending on the current importation rules.

High end designer handbags are a good investment as long as original packaging and paperwork is kept, as are watches.

Barleyfields

25 years is a very long time Silverbrooks. No investment advisor would be likely to predict short term gains in the current global situation - and short term is all that is left for most of us here.

Indeed. I have already said several times in this thread that economists are predicting a stock market crash but it always recovers.

But we can't just see this through the prism of old age.

For younger investors, turning £10,000 into £50,000 would be an attract prospect; to be able to invest a relatively modest amount and by the time their children are grown they have a good nestegg for them which they won't if they leave it in cash savings as inflation will erode the spending power.

I’m looking at reducing the value of my estate GG, with an eye to minimising IHT. Things I can enjoy now but which won’t hold their value.

I have had stocks and shares ISA’s seen they first came into being.

None have made the gains you are posting, and at least one has lost money.

Stocks and shares, including in ISA’s are a gamble always have been, always will be.

You should never invest in them anything you cannot afford to lose.