Savings and Investment Behaviour in Britain: More Questions than Answers

Since the late 1970s successive British governments have been instrumental in cultivating a savings-friendly environment. Changes have been orchestrated in two ways: first by developing a regulatory structure in which the emphasis has been on safeguarding consumer's savings; and second by developing new types of accounts which include significant tax incentives. Despite considerable government intervention, consumer savings and investment behaviour has not received a great deal of attention from academic researchers. Some of the reasons for this lack of interest will be assessed prior to analysing two large scale datasets to ascertain levels of savings and account holding behaviour in Britain. The data indicates that while the vast majority of the British population are savings account holders, levels of regular saving are very low and savers frequently give few, if any, motives for their savings strategies.