The Daily Telegraph declared victory in its campaign to ‘Fix our broken ISAs’ after Chancellor George Osborne introduced a ‘New ISA’ which will enable subscriptions up to £15,000 from 1 July 2014.
The Chancellor also fulfilled another of the Telegraph’s demands by permitting the full £15,000 to be held in cash deposits as well as in shares: in fact, with new and existing ISAs you will be allowed to hold any combination of cash and shares you like and transfer (both ways) between cash and stocks and shares ISAs. The FT reported that the new rules would allow people to invest in ‘peer-to-peer’ lending within ISAs, which can offer returns of as much as 7% a year. Obviously, as with any investment, risk would need to be carefully considered.