Clause 12 - Subscription limits
Child Trust Funds Bill
9:30 am
Mr George Osborne (Tatton, Conservative)
My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. He may want to elaborate on those points if he catches your eye, Mr. Benton, in this mini-debate. We are not necessarily talking about people with big share portfolios, or incredibly wealthy people who are trying to move around blocks of shares. Many will have fairly small shareholdings, perhaps in the company where they work. As my hon. Friend says, all sorts of tax liabilities could be triggered if the shares cannot be passed directly into a child trust fund.
One of the Government's objectives is to build into the measure some financial education to help people to make better choices, and this seems as good a way as any of teaching people that money exists in forms other than cash, and that it can be transferred in forms other than cash. Indeed, we have had several debates about equities. One of the Financial Secretary's objectives is to create a broader understanding in society, particularly in lower income families, of the value of equities, and she and the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) have debated the subject. Surely, if the Minister wants to achieve her objective, it seems unnecessarily restrictive not to allow people to transfer money by way of equities.
I do not suggest that a huge number of people would use such a facility; indeed, not all financial providers would want to offer it. However, one can foresee some of them offering it as a unique selling point. Allowing people to transfer payments other than in monetary form would give providers something to market. The proposal seems straightforward, and I cannot see that there can be strong arguments against it. It would make the transfers to which my hon. Friend the Member for Witney referred much easier, and it would broaden people's understanding of equities in particular, and of other forms of money such as gilts. I shall be interested to hear the Financial Secretary's arguments against it.