Speeches by Glen.

“Recently I have been meeting firefighters in Wilton, and last night I met Andy Cole, the chief fire officer for Wiltshire and Dorset. Eight of our 50 fire stations in those two counties face closure, despite them making £15 million of annual savings since 2016. At the core of the issue, it seems, are the assumptions ab…”

“Given the progress made by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, will the Paymaster General update the House? Over £140 million has been spent by the inquiry. Has he had any conversations with Sir Brian Langstaff on when will be the right time to close down that inquiry, and whether he has wider lessons about the …”

“So you think you can operationalise at scale across the sector pathways of referrals to credit unions and others. Is that a reasonable expectation to have?”

“To those of us who have been looking at this area for several years and might be a bit cynical about the speed of progress, what encouragement could you give us for this Government’s approach and strategy in this specific area?”

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

“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…”

“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 …”

“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?”

“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…”

“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?”

“To prove good behaviour.”

“The point is that it is quite obvious that you can find out more about your market and that your understanding of profitability will be enhanced. No one is saying that they expect insurance companies then to pick up an unaffordable number of people—you cannot afford to—but society needs to know who those people are and…”

“Yes, I am.”

“It seems like an obvious solution, though. Why was it not progressed?”

“Can I address the Chair’s example? I seem to remember that in previous sessions, one of the issues was whether a housing association could put together collective insurance for multiple residents and almost auto-enrol people into it. One of the issues was the responsibility that would then apparently fall to that housi…”

“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…”

“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 …”

“So it is about consumer protection?”

“Finally, do you think there is a cultural problem in the UK? Ireland has quite a distinct culture that has allowed credit unions to develop in that way. Do you think the United Kingdom will be able to embrace that? We have seen a consolidation and a reduced number of credit unions, but what evidence do you see that sug…”

“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…”