Mansion House 2025: Chancellor targets retail investing revolution

As part of her 2025 Mansion House speech, Rachel Reeves unveiled her Leeds Reforms – a package of measures that aims to boost retail investment, and which includes a number of ideas that may impact on clients.

Firstly, the Government repeated its commitment to ‘getting the balance right’ between cash and investments, with a specific focus on the ISA market. Details are still lacking, however, and it remains unclear precisely how the Government plans to reform the ISA market. The only concrete announcement on ISAs was confirmation that LTAFs will now be permitted within stocks and shares ISA accounts.

It’s expected that the Chancellor will address the subject of ISA reform in more detail at the Autumn Budget.

Here at AJ Bell, we continue to campaign for ISA reform in order to simplify the market and make it easier for people to invest.

We recently commissioned a behavioural economics review which illustrates the impact that friction in the ISA market has on consumer behaviour. It seems many people choose the path of least resistance, in the form of cash saving, and never consider investing. We believe simplifying the ISA market, starting with merging stocks and shares and cash ISAs into a single account, would help break down the psychological barrier between savings and the stock market.

Our AJ Bell CEO, Michael Summersgill said: “Kickstarting an investing revolution could boost household finances and UK capital markets in the process.

“Crucially, Government must recognise that this can’t be achieved by diktat. It may be tempting to try and marshal ISA contributions through rules and regulations – such as mandatory quotas on UK assets or restrictions on cash contributions. But this simply won’t work.

“Instead, a simpler system with a single ISA account would allow consumers to glide between saving and investing seamlessly.”

The spirit of Sid

Hoping to revive the spirit of Sid, the Government also announced plans to launch a public campaign to promote investing.

Again, details remain relatively few and far between at this stage, but the Government will convene a group of industry stakeholders to work on a project aimed at promoting the benefits of investing.

AJ Bell has agreed to take part in the campaign, and we look forward to working with industry peers on a project which, if delivered correctly, could significantly boost the UK’s investment culture.

The campaign is expected to launch in April 2026.

Risk warnings

Reeves also promised a review of risk warnings on investment products, in order to “make sure they help people to accurately judge risk levels”.

With further details still to be announced, it remains unclear how long the review will take, and what process it will follow. However, the Government clearly believes it could help encourage more people to start investing.

FOS reform

A consultation has been launched regarding the Financial Ombudsman Service and its role in protecting consumers.

The Government says it intends to legislate on a number of reforms, including:

• an absolute time limit of 10 years for bringing complaints to the FOS;
• a framework within which the FOS will be required to seek a view from the FCA wherever there is ambiguity in how the FCA’s rules apply. The FCA will be obliged to respond, and any party to a complaint will be able to request that the FOS seeks the FCA’s view on the interpretation of rules;
• the FOS will be required to find that a firm’s conduct is fair and reasonable where it has complied with relevant FCA rules, in accordance with the FCA’s intent for those rules; and
• the Ombudsman Service will reduce the interest rate it applies before a decision from 8% to base rate plus 1%.

The consultation closes on 8 October 2025 and can be found here.

Share digitisation

Following an extensive review, legislation will be brought forward to stop new paper share certificates being issued, and to replace current paper share registers with digitised versions by the end of 2027.

Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SM&CR)

The Government has announced a consultation on proposals that aim to reduce regulatory burdens imposed by the SM&CR.

The consultation outlines plans to reduce the number of pre-approvals that need to be sought from regulators. This includes providing regulators with greater flexibility in how they define senior management functions. It will also allow regulators to focus pre-approval on some senior manager roles, while allowing firms to conduct checks themselves and notify regulators of new appointments in some cases.

The FCA says it will provide more time and flexibility to submit applications for approving new senior managers when there has been an unexpected or temporary change. It will also help streamline the annual checks to certify that individuals are ‘fit and proper’ to do their role.