Gervais Williams, Head of Equities at Premier Miton, discusses the launch of a British ISA in a wide ranging exclusive interview with DirectorsTalk.
DirectorsTalk asked: In the run up to the budget, the Pensions Minister and a number of fud managers including Premier Miton were advocating for a British ISA. The Chancellor has now announced its launch in his recent Budget and plans to consult on the details. What are your hopes for this new ISA allowance?
Gervais Williams said, ‘I think it’s the start of a new trend to be honest. I think 5,000 a year along with 20,000 existing ISA is the way forward.
I am disappointed about the consultation, not because I can see it’s sensible perhaps to find what other people’s views are, but it does mean it’s not going to be introduced for this coming tax year in April. I think that is quite a big disappointment actually, relative to where we hoped it would be. Clearly it can happen next year but between now and next year we don’t know what’s going to happen, of course there’ll be an election, economic outcomes may be less good than people think.
So, I think it’s absolutely the right thing to do. I think it is going to begin to make people look at the UK market independently a bit more and bring some more capital in, I think it’s going to be very good news.
I think the UK market is on a hair trigger at the moment, I think there’s lots of local sellers from redemptions but on the other hand there’s lots of buybacks particularly large companies and I think marginal changes in flow of capital into the UK market could have a disproportionate effect on the market overall.
So, I think it’s the right thing but it’s a pity it’s not for this tax year, it’s for next tax year, so unlikely to have any significant effect for a while yet.’
