Emma Reynolds MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 3 Sept 2025 · Living Standards: East of England · Hansard source

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  indicated assent.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Living Standards: East of England · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure, as ever, to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich South (Clive Lewis) for securing this debate and the opportunity to have a constructive discussion about living standards in the east of England. I thank other hon. Members who have contributed, including the hon. Members for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman), for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff), for Strangford (Jim Shannon)—he is on form, as ever—and for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone), and my hon. Friend the Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (Alex Mayer). I do not have an enormous amount of time, so I will crack on with my speech. This Government are committed to raising living standards for everybody across the UK and, of course, in the east of England, but it is worth pointing out that that is no small task. When we came to power, we took over from a Government who had dropped the ball on living standards—the last Parliament was the weakest on record for living standards. We were elected to turn that around, and through our Plan for Change we are delivering policies to kickstart growth that will boost living standards in every part of the UK. Indeed, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, we can expect living standards, measured by real household disposable income per capita, to rise by 2.6% over the course of this Parliament. I will focus on a number of measures that we have taken to strengthen household income, particularly for those on low incomes. The first is that we have increased the national living wage, which will benefit around 3 million of the lowest paid workers and make them up to £1,400 better off. We are investing more than £0.5 billion in the Best Start family service over the 2026 to ’29 spending review period, making sure that every local authority has a family hub that is open to all, and focusing—this was mentioned by one of my hon. Friends—on areas with higher proportions of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. We are putting early years back at the heart of how we deliver stronger outcomes for our children, as it has ever been with Labour Governments, including this one and the previous Labour Government, with half a million children benefiting from the roll-out of the new 30 hours free childcare entitlement that we brought forward this week. We will be investing £410 million per year by 2028-29 to expand free school meals in England to all children with a parent receiving universal credit, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament. We are providing £1 billion a year to reform crisis support, including the first ever multi-year settlement to transform the household support fund into a new crisis and resilience fund. We have frozen fuel duty, saving drivers about £3 billion this year, while extending the £3 bus fare cap until March 2027, keeping prices low on some 5,000 routes across England. We are also protecting the pension triple lock and, in doing so, gave 1.2 million pensioners in the east of England a 4.1% increase to their basic or new state pension in April this year. At the recent spending review, we confirmed funding for our affordable homes programme; my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich South spoke passionately about council houses. The 10-year affordable homes programme will involve £39 billion during that period. We have also committed to local transport priorities for some our larger city regions via the transport for city regions settlements. For the east of England, we have confirmed £14.2 billion for Sizewell C, which, at peak construction, will create 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships, and wider economic benefits in Suffolk and the wider region. We have also made significant progress in creating the conditions for growth, with reforms to the national planning policy framework, which the Office for Budget Responsibility concluded will permanently increase the level of real GDP by 0.4% over the next 10 years—the biggest positive growth impact that the OBR has ever forecast for a policy with no fiscal cost. We are going forward with the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and, in the east of England, with support for the Oxford to Cambridge corridor, which will bring many benefits to local communities. That approach will drive growth in city regions, towns and communities and make the most of the opportunities in each part of the country to make people better off. We are already seeing the results of our plan working, with the Bank of England having reduced interest rates five times since we came to office, which will put downward pressure on mortgage payments. However, we recognise, of course, that challenges remain. We must support those in immediate need while making the structural changes necessary to give our cities, towns and rural and coastal communities the resources and powers that they need to succeed. Through our plan for neighbourhoods, we are providing long-term funding directly to communities, delivering visible improvements on people’s doorsteps, championing local leadership and fostering stronger communities. Of the 75 places already announced in the plan for neighbourhoods, seven are in the east of England; each will receive up to £20 million over the next 10 years. We are also driving forward devolution, pushing power down, as my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich South discussed, giving local leaders the powers and resources to shape their own futures. The devolution priority programme will see two new mayoral strategic authorities established in the east of England, both in Greater Essex and in Norfolk and Suffolk, with inaugural mayoral elections in May next year. We have established the Cambridge Growth Company, which will work with local partners to unlock key developments and deliver an “infrastructure first” strategy for sustainable growth in the area. The Government are providing certainty and stability through our commitment to in-flight local growth projects, including freeports and investment zones. Those programmes can and should be key tools for driving growth across the UK, including the east of England. We are committed to bringing them together as part of our modern industrial strategy. I do not have very much time left, Mrs Hobhouse. The Government are committed to sustainable and secure economic growth, and we are bringing that about in three major ways: restoring stability, as we did in the Budget last year by introducing non-negotiable fiscal rules, to put the public finances back on a stable path; secondly, investment in renewal, within the fiscal rules made in the autumn, supporting the step change needed, as confirmed in our plans in the spending review period; and changing the economy to prioritise long-term growth through key reforms. Every investment, reform and partnership is focused on one goal: raising living standards in the east of England and across the country, creating opportunities in every community. I know that we are all passionate about that. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich South again for bringing this important debate to the House. Question put and agreed to.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for his thoughtful question. We are doing a number of things. First, we are working at pace with the FCA to ensure that targeted support is in place by the end of the tax year and in time for the new ISA season in April next year. We are looking at the risk warnings and at the industry-led campaign on advertising the opportunities of investing. We are doing all that we can. It is good that hon. Members on different sides of the House are supporting us. Obviously, different people will be at different stages in their journey through life. People who are retired may not want to invest in the stock market. I can understand that, from their perspective, they need more readily available cash, but if people who are younger or middle aged—I do not know where I fall in those categories— [ Interruption. ] Thank you. If people can even put a small amount away, they can invest in their future. It concerned me recently when a report suggested that many people did not know that their pensions were invested in the stock market and that that is how they get better returns in their retirement. We need to run a huge campaign with the private sector to educate people about the opportunities and to give people the confidence to invest. At the end of the day, it will obviously be down to people about how they choose to invest.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  That is absolutely right. We were at Lloyds Banking Group yesterday in Leeds, and Lloyds employs thousands of people in Leeds and the wider region. There are some great opportunities in not only the establishment firms, but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies) said, some of these new firms outside of London that are growing and providing innovative products. I was recently in Scotland talking to a group of fintechs about the support they are getting to work closely with some of the banks in Scotland to drive further investment into fintechs. That collaboration between the more established players and new players is positive to see.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I refer the hon. Lady to page 63 of the strategy, which is very useful. It sets out an ambitious timeline for implementing the reforms that the Chancellor set out at the Mansion House last night and in Leeds yesterday morning, and shows her that we have already taken action to implement some of the decisions we took in November last year, such as introducing the private intermittent securities and capital exchange system. PISCES is a new private intermittent securities market that is open for business, and for which we legislated in May. That demonstrates how we are working at pace. Other things will take a little longer, and her extensive experience in this place and in government means that she will understand that some of those things require primary legislation. However, she will see through the two-page summary at the back of the strategy how we plan to implement the reforms at pace to unleash the potential of the financial services sector.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I can reassure the right hon. Gentleman that we are not suggesting getting rid of risk warnings. I think that is what he was asking me most directly. One of the investment platforms did some research into the wording of risk warnings, and he will probably know that there is quite a gender gap. If we look at the figures from the Financial Conduct Authority’s financial lives survey, we see that more men have the confidence to invest than women, for example. There are other demographic factors, too. We want to give people the option and the confidence to invest, but of course there will always be risk warnings. However, there is also a risk if someone holds all their savings in cash over the long term, due to inflation.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  That is similar to what the hon. Member for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell) asked. There has been lots of different research, but AJ Bell recently found that if people had put £100 a year into ISAs for the past 25 years, they would be better off if they invested in a stocks and shares ISA than a cash ISA, so it is perhaps about showing people that sort of evidence. Obviously, the stock market ebbs and flows and can fluctuate, but if people are saving for the longer term, they should certainly consider investing. The industry-led campaign will look at how we can advertise the benefits. Of course, there still will be risk warnings, but we need to ensure that we get the balance right between telling people that there are risks and telling them that there are great benefits of investing, too.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. We want to ensure that the dream of home ownership is expanded across the country, including to his constituency of Harlow. Because of the reforms we are taking forward, and there will be more to come, the estimate is that 36,000 new first-time buyers will be able to buy their homes in the first year of this reform being in place.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I can reassure my hon. Friend that the concierge service will be working across the country. This is about ensuring that the UK has a single shop window for international firms looking to either set up or invest further in the UK. As we set out in the Leeds reforms, the benefits of that investment and of unleashing the potential of the financial services industry should be felt across the country, in the east midlands and beyond.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I reassure the right hon. Gentleman that we have not announced a listing review; we have announced a listings taskforce— [ Interruption. ] It is different, if hon. Members will let me explain. It is a joint piece of work between the Office for Investment, His Majesty’s Treasury and other Government Departments to make sure that we attract the best and brightest companies to list here in the UK. He is correct, though: many reforms were undertaken by his Government on listings, taking forward the Jonathan Hill and Mark Austin reviews, and we welcomed and supported those. The right hon. Gentleman will have seen that yesterday the FCA published its final prospectus rules. Of course, we have to get the regulatory side of the equation right, but he is correct that there are other factors at play, which we are looking at. On the FCA and the PRA, all I will say to reassure him is that, as he knows, I hold the relationship with both those regulators as the Economic Secretary. We will continue to push them to be ambitious in supporting our growth agenda.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  Well, what do I say to that? I think there is, with the exception of the hon. Member, cross-party support for the twin peaks financial services regulation that we have. Of course, we need proportionate regulation to ensure that there are protections in place for consumers. He seems to be suggesting that we get rid of the regulators altogether, which I think most Members of this House would be opposed to. I have heard of the concept of caveat emptor, and I am suitably patronised by him.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. We are intent on building the 1.5 million homes that we promised at the election. I remind the chuntering hon. Gentlemen on the Opposition Front Bench that even before the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the OBR scored the first stage of the planning reforms as the largest increase in GDP by the end of the scorecard of any non-fiscal lever in its history.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that thoughtful question. I am happy to talk to the Committee about that in more detail. What I will say is that the Leeds reforms regulate for growth instead of seeking to eliminate risk from the system altogether. We know that in order to get greater returns, there is a need to take informed risk. The reforms will enable firms and consumers to take informed risks. But we will always support the regulators and legislate in a way that protects consumers from bad practices and bad actors.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. This is something that the Chancellor and I—and indeed the Business Secretary and the Business Minister—are passionate about, and we are making sure that we deliver on our manifesto commitment to double the size of the sector. We have asked the financial services regulators to report by the end of the year on what more they can do to support the growth of the sector. We are supporting the industry-led Mutual and Co-operatives Business Council, which is chaired by the chair of Nationwide, Kevin Parry, and we have recently concluded a call for evidence on the credit union common bond, which is another form of mutual. We will be setting out our response on that issue in due course.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  It is always a great pleasure to come and give evidence to the hon. Gentleman’s Committee. I reassure him that the Government are upholding the ringfencing regime. We must strike the right balance between protecting financial stability and safeguarding depositors. Equally, we think that there are some flexibilities that should be explored within the ringfencing regime that will allow further growth and further capital to be deployed in the real economy.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is a great campaigner on this issue, and he is absolutely right: this is not an easy nut to crack. We will work closely with the industry-led campaign. We need to give people who want to invest and save for the longer term the confidence to consider whether they can secure better returns through investing, rather than just holding large amounts—if they have those large amounts—of money in cash.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  We have a very good deal with the EU, which we agreed in May this year and will continue to build on. I was pleased to have invited the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Maria Luís Albuquerque, who was at the dinner last night at the Mansion House. I will try to get through all the hon. Member’s questions. On liquidity and valuations, I point out that we have some of the deepest capital markets in the world. Last year, the amount of equity capital raised in London was larger than in the next three European exchanges put together. However, I recognise the issues she talked about. On the advertising campaign, Chris Cummings of the Investment Association is leading the secretariat. He will also be looking at risk warnings. That is not to say there should not be risk warnings, but that there should be a balance in risk warnings to ensure that warnings are also informing people of the benefits of investing over the long term. The hon. Member rightly talked about the importance of financial education and capability. We will put forward suggestions on that in the financial inclusion strategy, which we will publish in the autumn. However, as this is a cross-Government effort, I reassure her that I am speaking and meeting actively with the Minister for School Standards so that we are aligned with the Department for Education’s curriculum review. The hon. Member asked about mortgages. May I reassure her? Obviously, we have had extensive regulations since the global financial crash and we are not going back to the bad old days when there were no verification checks on affordability and 125% mortgages. But the system we have got means that people on modest incomes are unable to get on the housing ladder. Nationwide has said that because of the Bank of England’s recent decision, it will be able to help an additional 10,000 people a year with its helping hand mortgage to fulfil their dream of home ownership. I think that is a great step forward and will mean that people across the country, like many in this House, can benefit from the security of home ownership, and particularly those on modest incomes and in generations that are being deprived of such opportunities.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  As was said previously, the package that we announced yesterday, as well as the announcement by the Bank of England and the FCA’s discussion paper, go to the heart of making sure that we have the right balance between ensuring people have affordable mortgage products and ensuring that those products are accessible to more people up and down the country. As she will know—I am sure that she is referring to this—the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and some of the other planning reforms that we set forward are some of the most ambitious for a generation. They will unlock the potential for those homes to be built so that we can get more and more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I could not agree more with my hon. Friend, who is a fantastic champion of fintech. We already have a thriving fintech sector, which is the second largest in the world—second only to the US—and we are determined to ensure that those companies access the capital and the authorisations and licences that they need from the regulators. Obviously, that is a decision for the regulators, but it should be done at pace so that these companies can get off the ground and start to scale, providing the opportunities for retail investment and, critically, providing innovative products for consumers across the country.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  With permission, Mr Speaker, I shall update the House on the content of the Leeds reforms. The reforms encompass the Government’s financial services growth and competitiveness strategy, which is our 10-year plan for financial services. This plan will make the UK the global centre of choice for financial services investment by 2035, with all parts of the country benefiting from its success, building on our thriving regional financial services clusters around the country. The financial services sector is one of this country’s largest and most productive sectors. It is worth 9% of total economic output and provides 1.2 million jobs across the UK’s nations and regions. Our strategy will unleash the potential of the sector to catalyse growth, enterprise and opportunity in the rest of the economy. That will mean that working people will get better returns on their savings, that home ownership will be unlocked for tens of thousands more people, and that more businesses will get access to the capital that they need to grow. The Secretary of State for Business and Trade recently presented to this House our modern industrial strategy in which financial services was identified as one of the key eight growth driving sectors on which the Government will focus. This builds on the successes of our first year in office, which I am proud to highlight: the fastest growth in the G7 in the first quarter of this year; four interest rate cuts; faster wage growth in the past 10 months than the previous 10 years of the last Government; the FTSE100 yesterday at a record high; and business confidence at its highest in nine years. [ Interruption. ] I will not take lectures from the Conservatives, who presided over inflation at 11% and debt rising year after year. Our vision is of an active state working in partnership with business, and the Leeds reforms were co-designed with industry. The Chancellor and I undertook extensive engagement in its preparation, and I was pleased to see financial services firms across the country and the Confederation of Business Industry welcome our reforms publicly. The reforms reintroduce informed risk taking into our financial services system to deliver prosperity for working people. We will always ensure that financial stability is a prerequisite for economic growth, and we continue to uphold our commitment to the high international standards that underpin the resilience of the global financial system. I will briefly set out the details of our package to the House. First, the Government are delivering a competitive regulatory environment to attract investment and drive growth. We have set out plans to deliver the most significant reform to the Financial Ombudsman Service since its inception, ensuring that it no longer acts as a quasi-regulator and returning it to its original purpose as an independent, impartial dispute resolution service for complaints between consumers and financial services firms. We are also streamlining the senior managers and certification regime to reduce the burdens imposed on firms by 50% and to reduce approval times. We have tasked the Financial Conduct Authority to report back by September on how it plans to address concerns about the application of the consumer duty for firms primarily engaged in wholesale activity. Secondly, our reforms unlock capital for investment into our infrastructure and businesses. We are doing this by supporting the Bank of England’s changes to MREL—the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities—and by confirming our approach to Basel 3.1, implementing lower capital requirements for domestically focused banks from January 2027 while preserving flexibility in our approach for international banks to ensure that the UK remains competitive and aligned with international standards. We are also committing to meaningful reform to ringfencing, while maintaining the aspects of the regime that support financial stability and protect customer deposits. We welcome the Financial Policy Committee’s review of the overall bank capital levels needed for UK financial stability and its decision to ease its loan-to-income restriction on mortgage lending. I am delighted that this decision will enable up to 36,000 additional first-time buyers to access mortgages in the first year. Thirdly, we are making the UK the location of choice for fintechs to start up, scale and list, and we want the wider financial services sector to embrace innovation too. The FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority will launch a scale-up unit to ensure that fast-growing businesses have the support they need to grow. The regulators will also introduce a new streamlined authorisation regime that will enable innovative firms to start operating while they await full approval. We are modernising and future-proofing the regulatory framework for payments and e-money, including stablecoin, and we are establishing a new model to deliver next-generation retail payments infrastructure. Fourthly, we are seizing opportunities in key areas of UK leadership, from speciality insurance and asset management to sustainable finance. Our insurance sector has been world-leading for centuries, and we are committed to staying at the front of the pack by creating a new captive insurance framework and holding an industry showcase event later this year to sell the sector globally. We are also future-proofing the regulatory regime for our asset management sector, which is the second largest in the world, and we will publish draft legislation on that early next year. The UK is already a leading global hub for sustainable finance. We have set out plans for a stable regulatory framework, and we are giving industry clarity by deciding not to pursue a green taxonomy and by focusing instead on ambitious policies that support investors to invest in the transition. I look forward to continuing to work with Lord Alok Sharma and the Transition Finance Council, which he chairs, to make the UK the leading international hub for raising transition finance. Fifthly, we want to go further in building a new retail investment culture and boosting our capital markets’ competitiveness. We have taken great strides to reform our pensions system, led by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell), so that people can have better savings in retirement. We want savers to get the best returns on their savings. For too many their money is not working hard enough, and for too long advice on investments has been the preserve of only the wealthiest in society. To address this, the Chancellor has announced the biggest reform of the financial advice and guidance landscape in more than a decade and the introduction of targeted support in time for the new tax year. The Chancellor and I welcome the steps being taken by industry to help consumers engage with investing. I particularly thank Chris Cummings of the Investment Association for the work he is leading on that. We are also considering reforming the individual savings account system to ensure better outcomes for both savers and the UK economy. We are allowing long-term asset funds to be held in stocks and shares ISAs next year. This will allow more individuals to invest in assets that will support the UK’s success while seeing better returns on their savings. To ensure that our capital markets support British business, we are announcing a new listings taskforce with the Office for Investment to attract world-leading businesses towards initial public offering in the UK. We are publishing a wholesale financial markets digital strategy to harness innovation as well as our ambitious design for the digital gilt instrument pilot. Finally, we are taking steps to enhance the UK’s leadership in financial services, ensuring that the UK remains the most open and connected financial centre in the world. We will launch a concierge service—the Office for Investment: Financial Services—to attract international financial services firms to invest in the UK and grow their business. We are further facilitating cross-border activity with the publication of guidance on our overseas recognition regimes and a memorandum of understanding with UK regulators, a copy of which I will place in the Library in both Houses. Through these steps, the Government have placed financial services at the heart of our growth mission. Our 10-year strategy is ambitious, includes the most far-reaching reforms to financial services for a decade, and will unleash the fantastic potential of our world-leading financial services sector. We are backing British businesses, unlocking home ownership for tens of thousands of people across the country, supporting savers to get better returns, and investing in our shared future. I commend this statement to the House.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I am engaging with Martin Lewis, who is a doughty champion of consumers across the country. I say to the hon. Member that, due to the consumer duty, banks and other providers have a duty to ensure that they deliver the best outcomes for their consumers, but I note what he has said.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I might not be able to give my hon. Friend the specifics about her region right now, but I will say that my colleague the Pensions Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell), has secured an ambitious industry-led accord—the Mansion House accord—that commits 17 pension funds, representing 90% of active defined-contribution savers, to invest 10% of their funds in private assets, half of which are to be in the UK. They will be on the hunt for good firms that could be successful in the future and that need capital to start up and scale up. We are also working closely with the British Business Bank on these issues, as my hon. Friend will know.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I gently say to the right hon. Member that we are not talking about going back to 2007—we have come a long way since then. Of course, after the crash, financial services regulations and a new system of financial services regulation in terms of the twin peaks of the FCA and the PRA—conduct and prudential—were introduced. We are not talking about going back to then. We are not bringing back 125% mortgages, as I have repeatedly said. We are simply saying that we need to reassess where we are and that the pendulum has swung too far the other way. We need to rebalance the system so that both consumers and firms can take informed risks to drive growth across the country. That will make people better off and give them the opportunity to secure better returns on their savings. I encourage her to look at the detail of this. We are looking to rebalance the system, not go back to where we were.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  I reassure my hon. Friend that our agenda is to streamline regulation and make it more proportionate, and that there remain firm guardrails and affordability checks for mortgage providers. At the moment, the level of repossessions is very low and banks and other mortgage providers do all they can to avoid repossessing people’s homes. As I said before, we will not go back to the bad old days of 125% mortgages and no verification of affordability. This is about rebalancing the system to make sure that more people can afford to buy their own home, but it is also about striking the right balance between ensuring that we take more informed risk while ensuring financial stability. He is right to ask the question.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Financial Services Reform · Hansard source

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  Well, half of that was all right, I suppose. I do want to start constructively and thank the hon. Member for his welcome for some of the reforms. I will answer some of his specific questions before I come to the wider points. On the Financial Ombudsman Service, we have set out in great detail what we will do. As he will be aware, some of the changes require primary legislation. We are proposing an absolute time limit of 10 years, but with discretion for the FCA to give longer periods in the case of products with a longer lifetime. I cannot comment on the ongoing car finance issue, which as he knows is working its way through the courts. The hon. Member talked about the regulators’ different objectives. We have been very clear with the regulators that we expect them to embed their secondary objective to facilitate economic growth and competitiveness while obviously complying with their other objectives. He will see that in the remit letters that the Chancellor sent to the regulators at the last Mansion House speech last November. On ISAs, I welcome what the hon. Member said about long-term asset funds, which we think will unlock great opportunities for savers. We continue to consider reform to ISAs. We would like to ensure that more people have the opportunity and confidence to invest, which is why we hope that targeted support, which will be introduced by firms by the end of this tax year—we have worked at pace on this—will really shift the dial and give people that confidence to invest. I think the hon. Member said he was in favour of what we are doing on MREL, and I know that he agreed with the Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Act, which we put through the House and is coming into force today. I thank him for his support on that. On ringfencing, we have detailed which areas we will look at. I am happy to write to him further on that, but one area, for example, is sharing resources across the ringfenced and non-ringfenced parts of banks. We want to ensure that we strike the right balance between growth and stability. I turn to the hon. Member’s points about economic stability. I will take no lessons from the Conservatives—I hate to say it. We had inflation at 11%, people paying extremely high mortgage rates and debt rising year after year. The only thing that was stable under their Government was wages, which were flatlining.