Savings Policy in the United Kingdom Asset ownership is seen as having an increasingly influential link to a variety of social outcomes. While the UK has experienced increases in economic wealth and improvements in overall living standards over the past 40 years, trends in asset ownership have reversed. More recently, 15 years of economic stability led to a feeling of increased financial security and individual savings were eroded in a boom of consumerism. The distribution of this increase in wealth has been unequal and the distribution of asset ownership follows a similar pattern. The link between asset ownership and social outcomes has explicitly led to the UK government directing a selection of policy interventions towards incentivizing personal saving.
This paper explores the savings landscape in the UK, assessing current savings behavior and reflecting on the policy direction that has been adopted in relation to savings over the last decade. It examines policies that encourage saving and asset ownership, and how such policies interrelate with broader government objectives. It then identifies specific interventions that have attracted international attention, such as the Child Trust Fund, before concluding with an assessment of the policy implications and a discussion of the future role of savings.