The National Savings Movement was a British mass

saving Saving is income not spent, or deferred consumption. Methods of saving include putting money aside in, for example, a deposit account, a pension account, an investment fund, or as cash. Saving also involves reducing expenditures, such as recur ...

s movement that operated between 1916 and 1978 and was used to finance the deficit of

government spending Government spending or expenditure includes all government consumption, investment, and transfer payments. In national income accounting, the acquisition by governments of goods and services for current use, to directly satisfy the individual o ...

over

tax revenue Tax revenue is the income that is collected by governments through taxation. Taxation is the primary source of government revenue. Revenue may be extracted from sources such as individuals, public enterprises, trade, royalties on natural resou ...

s. The movement was instrumental during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in raising funds to support the

war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative size ...

. In peacetime the movement provided an easy and safe way for ordinary people to save small sums of money. The movement grew to around 7 million members before ceasing during the 1970s as more modern methods of saving took over. Savings products promoted by the movement typically offered a low level of return but the safety of a government guarantee.

History

The movement was created in March 1916 as the National Savings Committee and this was supplemented by volunteer local committees and paid civil servants. A number of different organisations were loosely affiliated to make up the movement, including the Trustees Savings Banks and National Savings (previously the Post Office Savings Bank). By 1946, the movement employed 1190 civil servants at an annual cost of £1.5 million, excluding unpaid volunteers. The amount raised by the movement at that time was £105,000 per week compared with £5 million in 1943. According to a parliamentary answer, in 1950 there were about 185,000 local National Savings groups with a membership of about 7,000,000. The amount of small savings invested was over £6,100 million. The

Trustee Savings Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

s funds had reached £1,000 million. On 30 March 1966, a ceremony was held at the London Guildhall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the movement, which was attended by Queen Elizabeth II.Hansard Debates 22 February 1966 vol 725 cc221-2
Retrieved 24 March 2011. On 30 July 1976, the government announced that all 580 civil servants who supported the otherwise voluntary movement would be withdrawn over two years as part of public spending cuts. Without this administrative support the movement was unable to function, and its National Committee met for the last time on 16 February 1978. Attempts to restructure the movement into a more general money management service had failed because of a lack of financial support from the government and the banking industry.

Campaigns

The movement was particularly active during wartime, when government spending was heightened. During World War II a ''War Savings Campaign'' was set up by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

to support the war effort. ''Local savings weeks'' were held which were promoted with posters with titles such as "Lend to Defend the Right to be Free", "Save your way to Victory" and "War Savings are Warships".

Symbols

One of the early symbols of the movement was the

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

, but this was replaced with an image of St. George slaying the dragon before the start of the Second World War after the swastika was adopted by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

Records

Archives of local savings committees may sometimes be found in local county archives, including in Wales, Essex, Walsall and others.

Ephemera

A wide range of printed and other ephemera exist for the movement including leaflets, membership certificates, posters in the popular styles of the period,

savings stamp A savings stamp is a stamp issued by a government or other body to enable small amounts of money to be saved over time to accumulate a larger capital sum. The funds accumulated may then be used to make a larger purchase such as taking out a savi ...

s and enamel badges awarded to members for long service.

References

Notes

External links

The National Savings Movement at lightstraw.co.ukLife in the National Savings Department by BBC Radio Norfolk Action DeskWar Savings Weeks by Stanley H Jones
{{commons category, National Savings Movement Financial services in the United Kingdom United Kingdom home front during World War II 20th century in the United Kingdom