The government should consider appointing an individual to champion a national savings culture, BlackRock’s head of UK retail Tony Stenning has claimed.
Mr Stenning, who also chairs Tisa’s savings and investments policy project, claimed that while the appointment of a new pensions minister and the liberalisation of pensions were both positive developments, the government should also consider appointing a savings minister or creating an independent role focused on the issue.
He warned that British workers put less than 10 per cent of their wages into savings between April and June 2015, representing a lower proportion than that saved by their counterparts in most European countries.
Mr Stenning also claimed that while financial education was getting better in the UK, people were still inclined to borrow rather than save when making major purchases, while savers held inappropriate levels of cash for meeting their long-term income needs.
He said: “The savings agenda needs to be more coherent. A new savings minister would transcend departments and be a positive driver for change to create a framework where it is as easy to save as it is to get into debt.
“We believe it would not increase bureaucracy, but would act as a way of streamlining the current system and depoliticising it, removing the habit of successive governments to tinker with the rules according to their short-term priorities.”
