Speeches by Glen.

“In principle, going back to the auto-enrolment of contents insurance, it is the obvious solution. It does not cost very much, because the housing association covers the building. If the insurers are prepared to offer the product, there must be a disconnect. I recognise that you do not want to reveal what is going on in…”

“Why do the banks not develop a mainstream auto-save product that targets incoming BACS payments, which would be a routine vehicle for the 5 million self-employed to have that savings option?”

“What about the issue of the opt-out or opt-in, in terms of savings from payroll? I understand that both the strategy and Nest Insight have highlighted that opt-out payroll savings are the gold standard, but currently there is a reliance on a complex regulatory workaround. As representatives of some of our largest banks…”

“This is always the argument, isn’t it? It is always about the long-term savings on pensions versus having a bit of resilience to avoid high-cost, unaffordable credit. Do the Government not just need to bite the bullet where previous Governments have perhaps failed to, and create a clear pathway toward people having a s…”

“I suspect that we will go around on this wheel again. The self-employed, of which there are roughly 5 million, do not have the same options for saving using bank accounts. How should that be fixed?”

“Yes, but don’t you also create problems? I speak with some experience of trying to supervise my mother’s savings with your bank—I should have declared that as well. Often, her account will come to the end of a one-year fixed programme and she will say, “John, I have a load of stuff from the bank. What am I going to do …”

“Since 9 February, I have been a non-executive director of Open Banking Ltd.”

“On that point, when you think about your lending criteria, how do you accommodate the insight that you have just given us with the imperative of finding a savings buffer with what you lend? Those two things are quite important to put together.”

“Before I ask my question, Chair, let me say that I neglected to declare that I am a member of the Financial Inclusion Commission and I co-chair the APPG on financial education for young people—sorry about that. Can I turn to the issue of support for savings and what is going on? If we look at the strategy, it focuses o…”

“Isn’t there a contradiction here with the profit imperative? Maybe it is somewhat different at Nationwide. The members of your sector can sell credit. At the same time, the savings gap in this country—the lack of a savings buffer—has been bad for a long time. There will be some that look at this and think that, unless …”

“Mr Singh, how would you respond to that?”

“So it is about consumer protection?”

“When I was a Minister, I tried to get a no-interest loan scheme going, based on a model that was used in Australia. I am not quite sure where it has got to. You are never going to make much money out of the poorest people in our society, nor should you, probably. Do you have a view on how we can make the banking sector…”

“I think most people watching would understand that you have to price risk. In previous sessions, your representatives and peers talked about how AI and machine learning are being used in pricing and underwriting, with some controls, such as human, in the loop and pricing ethics oversight. However, there remains an anxi…”

“Undoubtedly, every Government deals with different challenges, and I note that the Chancellor did not mention the challenge of covid in the last period of government. When I was in the Treasury, I did everything I could to support businesses with bounce back loans, and to support our public services, but clearly, covid…”

“Thank you for chairing this debate, Sir Roger. I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), who for 34 years has made such an enormous contribution in this place. When he set up the Centre for Social Justice, he was determined to look at the deeper causes of social p…”

“Well!”

“Thank you. I think I have taken enough of your time.”

“I think we have done it to death.”

“The average headroom from 2010 to 2024 was, I think, £25 billion. I totally acknowledge what you said about the last Conservative Budget, and that was not replenished. But we are also seeing a situation in which the level of debt, post covid and the energy crisis, and the cost of that debt mean that the public finances…”