Just 10.4 percent of savers with a cash ISA also possess a stocks and shares ISA, according to fresh research from Lubbock Fine Wealth Management, part of chartered accountants and business advisors Lubbock Fine, based on HMRC data published in its Annual Savings Statistics 2025. The experts indicated that out of the 7.1 million people who have a cash ISA, only 739,000 also have a shares ISA.

Andrew Tricker, director at Lubbock Fine Wealth Management, suggested the figures implied cash ISA investors were extremely risk-averse and might cling to the ‘safety’ of cash ISAs, rather than investing more money in shares ISAs. From April 2027, the tax-free annual allowance for cash ISAs will be reduced from £20,000 to £12,000, while the allowance for shares ISAs will remain at £20,000.

It will be feasible to divide the overall £20,000 allowance, for instance, £12,000 in a cash ISA and £8,000 in a shares ISA.

The alterations, announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves at the Budget in November, are intended to encourage savers to invest more in shares ISAs. The low uptake of shares ISAs raises questions over whether recent Government policies aimed at pushing savers into investing will deliver meaningful change, Andrew said.

He added: “The Government significantly reduced the tax-free allowance for cash ISAs to push savers into investing, but it remains to be seen whether this will be effective.”

The proportion of ISA investments flowing into shares ISAs dropped to 30 percent of all ISA investments in the last year, down from 39 percent the previous year, according to HMRC‘s 2025 report. The proportion going into Cash ISAs rose to 67 percent, up from 58 percent.

In total, of the £103 billion invested in ISAs, £69.5 billion was subscribed into cash ISAs and only £31 billion into stock and shares ISAs in the last year. Since the government announced the reduction in the tax-free allowance for cash ISAs, only two per cent of cash ISA holders have opened a shares ISA, according to Lubbock’s analysis via Opinium Research.

Görkem Barron, Chartered Financial Planner at Lubbock Fine Wealth Management, said the government should do more to close the financial ‘advice gap’ affecting people who do not usually invest.

She explained: “Many people do not invest and prefer to keep cash simply because they don’t know what alternatives they have. Instead, they often overestimate the risks and underestimate the benefits of investing.”

Since April 2026, some financial institutions, including banks and building societies, have been able to offer financial advice to groups of consumers, rather than solely to individuals on a personalised basis.

Görkem said: “The new rules on financial advice should help more people access advice, but it’s unclear whether this will really shift people away from holding cash into investing through stocks and shares ISAs.

“There is much more than the government could do on top of that, for example allowing unused Stocks and Shares ISA allowances to be carried forward for one year could help encourage more people to invest.”