Trustee Act (Hansard, 5 December 1946)

§ 57. Mr. Lipson
asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if, in view of the low rate of interest on trustee securities and the reduced purchasing power of the £, he will consider amending the Trustee Act, in order to give trustees greater discretionary powers of investment.

§ 59. Sir F. Sanderson
asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether, in view of the fact that trustees are finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable securities to replace those which are being taken over by His Majesty's Government under the nationalisation schemes, he will consider amending The Trustees Act, 1945, with a view to broadening the provisions and bringing them more into line with present-day needs.

§ 61. Sir Ian Fraser
asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will amend the Trustee Act, 1925, to enable trustees to invest more widely.

§ Mr. Dalton
No, Sir.

§ Mr. Lipson
In view of the fact that incomes of many elderly persons have been very considerably reduced as a result of the otherwise admirable cheap money policy of the Government, is not the Chancellor able to give further consideration to this matter, because many of them are suffering very real hardship?

§ Mr. Dalton
This is a matter in which to extend the Trustee Act, to extend the range of securities, would be to increase the risks. The principle of the Trustee Act is to confine trustees within a certain range of securities, in which risk is small or non-existent; and I think we should not alter that, in spite of the fact of certain changes that have taken place in the rate of interest.

§ Sir I. Fraser
Is it not a fact that the risks of investments—for example, in railways—have proved to be very great? Can the right hon. Gentleman not give some consideration to this whole question, because it is a vital matter affecting thousands of small people?

§ Mr. Dalton
I do not think I should be doing the right thing towards small people by increasing the risks attaching to their investments.

§ Mr. Stanley
In view of the fact that this list will be very much curtailed now by the abolition of railway stock, would not the Chancellor give consideration to the matter in the light of modern circumstances? Is it not possible that stocks which were excluded from the Trustee Act at the time of its passage because of their risk may now have become a much more secure investment, and is it not really time for the whole matter to be reconsidered?

§ Mr. Dalton
I naturally would not wish to exclude a rational consideration of the matter now raised. I have given consideration to it on a number of occasions, both with a view to Questions in the House and otherwise, and my mind at the present moment is inclined against making the change for the reasons I have given. There has been a very great increase in the total volume of securities within the Trustee List but I am always prepared to look at the matter again, though I must not be taken to be giving any kind of commitment or undertaking that it will, in my considered view and that of the Government, be desirable to make this change.

§ Sir W. Smithers
Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that the most risky investment today—[HON. MEMBERS: "Is to be a Tory candidate."]—is British Government securities so long as the present Government are in power, and is he aware that no banker or broker of repute would advise an investor to invest in a company of which the present Chancellor is chairman and the rest of the Cabinet Members are the board of directors?

§ Mr. Dalton
I think the hon. Member must be a bit out of touch with the Stock Exchange.