Increase Interest Rates to 5 Per Cent to Help Prudent Pensioners, Says Sir John Major

Sir John Major, the ex-Prime Minister

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Prudent pensioners who have saved carefully for their retirement all their lives are being punished by “cripplingly unfair” low interest rates, Sir John Major has said

The former Conservative Prime Minister urged the Government to do something “classically Conservative” and bring in measures to protect people’s savings.

Sir John urged the Bank of England to return interest rates - which banks say could be held at 0.5 per cent until 2017 - to “normal levels, say three to five per cent” to create a society that treats “the saver as fairly as it treats the debtor”.

Speaking to the annual dinner of the South Norfolk Conservative Association on Friday night, Sir John said: “For the moment, low interest rates are unavoidable to preserve companies and create jobs but there is another face to low interest rates.

“We should remember they are cripplingly unfair to people who have saved money for their retirement.

“A lifetime of prudence and now the money they invest earns them almost nothing at all and their quality of life is diminishing as a result of that. Read on and comment » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Monday, November 11, 2013