Dan Marsh gives half-Christmas wish list for chancellor

Dan Marsh, CEO of Octopus Money, has published a wish list for Britain’s next chancellor that centers on recent changes to Individual Savings Accounts. Writing in a personal commentary, he argues the new rules add complexity and risk discouraging ordinary savers.

The chief executive compares the moment to a “half-Christmas” — a chance to pause and reflect mid-year. Marsh suggests the chancellor should use the same opportunity to rethink the direction of ISA policy.

Simpler rules, fewer changes

His first request is straightforward: make the rules simpler and then leave them alone. Pension legislation changes every year, he notes, which forces many people to seek professional advice. ISAs had been one of the more straightforward products in British personal finance, but recent reforms have made them “significantly more complicated.”

Complexity causes people to disengage, he warns. Most ISA users manage the accounts alone. He questions whether the new complexity will push people with modest savings — a few thousand pounds — toward feeling they need an adviser. That could be difficult, given that only 9% of the country currently has access to money advice and those with under £200,000 are often locked out entirely.

“The person who finds the system too difficult to engage with at 35 is the person who arrives at retirement without adequate savings at 70,” Marsh writes. Marsh urges the next chancellor to apply a simple principle: the best investment strategies tend to be simple ones held for a long time.

Balancing incentives with penalties

His second point is about culture. Britain lags behind Europe and the US when it comes to investing, he says. The government has made real progress with initiatives like Savvy the Squirrel and targeted support. But the latest ISA reforms, he argues, cut against that spirit.

Rather than making investing feel accessible, the changes make cash saving feel like something to be penalised. A 22% tax charge on cash held in an investment account, transfer restrictions, and age-related allowances are hard to follow for first-time investors. Marsh says he has seen suggestions that raising the stocks and shares allowance to £30,000 might have been more attractive. He agrees that could have been a better starting point.

The same thinking applies to encouraging investment in UK companies. “The goal should be making UK markets as attractive as possible, not making it feel punishing to invest elsewhere,” he writes.

Proportionality and the cash charge

His third wish concerns the tax charge on cash held in Stocks and Shares accounts. The charge is designed to prevent savers from gaming the new £12,000 Cash ISA limit by parking money in an investment account to earn tax-free interest. He understands the concern but says he is not sure the evidence supports the scale of the response.