In response to reports that the Government has scrapped plans for a “British ISA”, Tim Hogg, director at consumer group Fairer Finance commented:

“The British ISA would have increased the ability of the people with the largest amounts of savings to make more tax-free investments. But it wasn’t obvious that further increasing the complexity of ISAs was a good intervention. After all, Navigating ISAs can already feel like a minefield for consumers. The aim of the British ISA was questionable, as it’s unclear if investing in the allowed assets would have led to higher or lower returns for customer. In any case, it’s not clear that the British ISA would have delivered significant further investment into the UK, as investors may have rebalanced their investments rather than invested more of their cash.”