Report to the People
21st January 2008
Giving
Old Money New Life
Despite
all the talk of “credit crunches” and bad debts in the sub-prime mortgage
market, the big banks still seem to being doing very nicely indeed.
But,
no matter how tidy their profits or eye-watering their executives’ bonuses,
they never seem to tire of finding new ways to make even more - as those of you
who have contacted me for information on reclaiming banks’ hefty charges for
going a few pounds overdrawn know only too well.
One
pile of money the banks certainly do not need is all the unclaimed cash which
has lain untouched for years in the accounts of people who have died or cannot
be traced.
The
Holyrood and Westminster parliaments, therefore, have joined forces to unlock
this money - about £40m in Scotland’s case - and reinvest it in the
community.
Thanks
to a vote in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, a Bill currently going through
at Westminster will now also give Scottish Ministers powers to set out how funds
lying in accounts which have not been touched for over fifteen years should be
spent.
We
must, of course, put pressure on Ministers to invest this money in initiatives
which will really enhance communities like ours and not squander it on pet
projects at the other end of the country. But
that’s an argument for another day. For
now, we should be happy that, for a pleasant change, a bit of co-operation
between politicians has yielded the most sensible solution.
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