It seems like much of this year has been taken up with our campaign to persuade the Chancellor not to mess around with the existing ISA regime under a false premise that reducing Cash ISA limits will  result in savers switching from cash to stocks and shares. It’s been a necessary campaign for the sector given our dependence on stable retail funding to support growing mortgage lending. We will find out on 26  November whether we have ultimately been successful.

But in many ways, it feels like the wrong campaign on savings. I would much rather have spent the first  half of this year trying to accelerate progress on encouraging many more households to start setting aside even small amounts of money for a rainy day, for their next holiday, their next car, their deposit for a first home. When we  went into Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, one of the most  alarming nonmedical statistics to emerge was that 25% of households had less than £100 in savings. Depressingly, that statistic has hardly shifted in the past five years. 

This is one of the reasons why I see UK Savings Week as one of the most important ongoing BSA led  campaigns. We are delighted that the campaign is going from strength to strength, gathering greater  support each year from building societies, credit unions, banks, charities and much more widely.

As the growing body of research shows, individual and household financial inclusion and financial  resilience so clearly contributes positively to wellbeing, happiness, workplace productivity and  economic growth. In our world of championing the building society and credit union sectors to  government and regulators, this could be a busy autumn for financial inclusion and household financial resilience.

The Government’s Financial Inclusion Committee should be producing its first report. The FCA’s review of the mortgage market is underway (and let’s not forget that home ownership in this country is not just an aspiration for many people, it is also shown to support long term financial resilience).

We may also see some progress on proposals for widespread workplace savings schemes – a  core competency of our credit union sector, and historically of building societies too. In this 250th year of the building society sector, let’s not forget the original model of regular collective savings to  buy land to build homes.

So there are glimmers of light to this seemingly intractable challenge. And I hope encouragement to continue to push forward across the whole mutual sector towards building a more financially inclusive  and resilient UK society.

What better way can we fulfil our purpose as mutual businesses than supporting our current and future members to build their financial resilience and wellbeing? And at the same time build our capacity to help more people onto the housing ladder, whilst continuing to support and invest in communities up and down the country.

All the better if we can do so with the strong support of Government. But let’s do it anyway!

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This article was first published in Society Matters magazine.