No, a British ISA won’t help UK firms – but pension funds might

In an otherwise lacklustre Budget for business, the chancellor had two announcements to address Britain’s struggling stock market and the desperate lack of investment capital. First, and most eye-catching, was the launch of a “British ISA”: an extra £5,000 tax-free saving allowance – on top of the usual £20,000 – for savings invested in UK shares. Any extra investment in UK plc generated through the British ISA will be a rounding error in the context of the £2 trillion value of UK firms. “Increasing investment into UK companies is a laudable aim, but this ill-conceived, politically-motivated decision will simply not achieve that objective,” says AJ Bell chief executive, Michael Summersgill. The chancellor confirmed plans to force pension firms to disclose their levels of UK equity investment, threatening “further action” if this is deemed insufficient.