‘Supporting local investing is good but not through a British ISA’

Commenting on how supporting local investing is good but maybe not through a British ISA, William Marsters, Senior Sales Trader at Saxo UK, said:

 
“The new ‘British ISA’ is a step in the right direction to support a historically undervalued UK stock market. The idea to support British business and keep capital invested at home has great intentions, and the outlook for returns could prove attractive. The FTSE 100’s April outperformance vs its peers shows there is positive potential for our home index. A commodity rally is assisting the FTSE’s heavy weighting in energy companies, buybacks are in full swing, and a flurry of exciting M&A action also shows promise. Just overnight markets saw a premium bid for London listed Hargreaves Lansdown.
 
“Supporting local is a good thing and the government should be encouraged to create such initiatives. The looming global retirement crisis puts a bright spotlight on government retirement plans, and individual savings too. Pensions need to grow and a great way to do that is to invest local and keep the inflows coming. The Australian retirement system is a great example of such a system. 

 
“But, regardless of how positive the intentions are, the British ISA does seem to fall short as effective. Less than 10% of ISA holders max out their annual allowance, so an extra £5,000 is unlikely to be widely utilised. Plus, it is estimated only 42% of the UK population have an ISA, compared to circa 85% who have private pensions. The government could get more bang for their buck if their efforts were focused there.”