Having read dozens of articles bemoaning London’s current financial malaise, I can imagine the Treasury team promoting ‘safe space ideas’ in search of initiatives to begin a turnaround. My imagined Treasury meetings promoting blue sky thinking (and other management consultancy speak) encourage even ‘whacky ideas’ to be aired. They do not get much whackier than the proposed ‘unlocking’ of £50bn of defined pension scheme cash, raised in a recent speech by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Hunt is wrong, and his meddling could have a disastrous impact on people’s savings.
Using words like ‘unlock’ is disingenuous; the surplus is not locked, and it may not be there in a week or month in a world where the so-called ‘one in one-hundred-year event’ seems to occur every six months. Someone should helpfully point out to Jeremy Hunt – ‘the value of investments can go up as well as down.’
