§ I am proud of our record of wider share ownership, which has seen the number of shareholders in this country treble. There are now 10 million shareholders in Britain. Thanks to our policies, shareholding is no longer a minority interest.
§ All the old-fashioned distinctions between employee and employer, between capital and labour, are being broken down in our modern enterprise economy. Most employees understand that their rewards depend on the success of the businesses for which they work. Most businesses believe that the best way to motivate staff is to let them share in the rewards of success. The public's willingness to embrace and understand those principles has been a major culture change over the past 16 years.
§ An important part of that change has been the spread of employee share ownership, which is one of the most attractive features of what has become known as popular capitalism. Holding shares in the company for which they work gives people a stake in the company's future success. Nobody in the House has advocated the cause of performance-related rewards and employee share ownership more than I have over the years, and I started doing so well before those ideas become fashionable.
§ We have two tax-privileged schemes to encourage share ownership for all employees: save-as-you-earn schemes that encourage share ownership through share options linked to savings plans and profit-sharing schemes that allow employees to receive free shares. There are around 1 million people in each scheme. I want to build on those successes by improving both schemes.
1069§ The minimum period for saving under a SAYE scheme will be reduced from five years to three and the minimum contribution will be halved to £5 a month. The holding period under profit-sharing schemes will also be reduced from five to three years. Those changes will increase significantly the attractiveness of those employee share-owning schemes. But I am going to do more.
§ In July, I withdrew the tax privileges attaching to some so-called "executive" share options. The overwhelming majority of companies used those options for their more senior employees. I approved of such options so long as they were linked to genuine performance, but I did not see any justification for maintaining their tax privileges.
§ The resulting debate brought out the fact that there was a demand for a third type of wider share ownership scheme, to provide a more flexible basis of granting options to lower-paid employees. I am, therefore, introducing a new tax relief that will enable companies to grant options, under a scheme approved by the Inland Revenue, up to a limit of £20,000.
§ The conditions for the new relief will be similar to the conditions that applied for the old one. The relief will also be available to schemes in existence at 17 July 1995, which qualified under the old rules subject to the £20,000 limit.
§ Those changes go further than ever before in creating a climate in which employee share ownership can become the norm. I hope that companies will offer all their employees, not just their executives, the chance to enjoy the economic benefits and the sense of ownership that shareholding can bring.