HC Deb 03 November 1970 vol 805 cc832-3
12. Mr. Eadie

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he now proposes to stimulate national savings.

21. Sir B. Rhys Williams

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he will take to promote savings.

29. Mr. Waddington

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to promote savings.

Mr. Barber

I am considering a number of suggestions for bringing about a genuine increase in total saving.

Mr. Eadie

Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that the package deal which he announced last week may very well affect national savings? Does he agree that industrial workers will be much worse off as a consequence of his package deal and that there may be a very great reduction in the amount of money put into factory savings schemes, or does he treat this kind of saving with contempt?

Mr. Barber

I do not accept what the hon. Gentleman says. I do not believe that what I announced last week will have the consequences he has stated. On the contrary, I believe that the approach which I applied in my statement last week on behalf of Her Majesty's Government will stimulate savings rather than reduce them.

Sir B. Rhys Williams

Has my right hon. Friend considered the advantage of requiring employers to pay higher percentage contributions into pension schemes for their employees, thereby automatically obtaining a switch from consumption into investment?

Mr. Barber

I have not considered this proposal, but I will certainly take the suggestion into account in the review which we are now undertaking which covers the whole field of savings in order to try encourage an increase in personal savings generally and not only in national savings.

Mr. Taverne

Will the right hon. Gentleman answer the question which was put by my hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian (Mr. Eadie)? What greater freedom to save will there be for the average industrial worker who finds his net expenditure inevitably increased?

Mr. Barber

I do not accept the basis on which the hon. Gentleman put his question. If the hon. and learned Gentleman will look at the record for the period when his Government were in office, he will find that the savings record was extremely bad compared with the 13 years of Conservative Government. One reason which his right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government and his predecessor the right hon. Member for Cardiff, South-East (Mr. Callaghan) were always giving was that if only we could get a higher level of personal savings we could reduce taxation. This is precisely what the previous Conservative Government did.

Sir R. Thompson

After the total débâcle which overtook national savings in the last year of Labour Government, will my right hon. Friend resist all this claptrap from the other side?

Mr. Barber

That is a very good point.