§ 27. Mr. Adleyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what measures he proposes to encourage people to save; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MooreI share my hon. Friend's desire to encourage a higher level of saving and investment. Both objectives will be promoted as a lower level of inflation enables the economy to expand on a sustainable basis. And many specific incentives for saving are already available, including measures introduced since 1979 such as the improvement in the tax treatment of profit-sharing schemes, the introduction of the savings-related share option scheme, and the introduction of the business startup scheme and its greatly developed successor the business expansion scheme. The indexation of capital gains tax provides an additional encouragement to many forms of saving. But the one single factor which now helps to make saving so much more worthwhile is the reduction in inflation which the Government have achieved.