Over half (56.7%) of retail investors are considering investing in UK shares in 2026, amid a government push to create a retail investing environment, new research from AJ Bell has shown.
The UK’s FTSE 100 is on track to achieve its best year on record since the financial crisis in 2009, beating the S&P 500 and Nasdaq year to date with a 22.2% total return.
AJ Bell said the performance has demonstrated to investors that the UK stock market still has a lot to offer, with a wealth of stocks providing steady earnings growth and generous dividends.
Investor interest in the UK stock market follows the Chancellor’s recent announcement that the cash ISA allowance will be cut from £20,000 to £12,000 for under-65s from April 2027.
Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said: “UK investors have a home bias. This has been irrefutably evident time and again in research on the retail investor market, and therefore it is unsurprising that over half of AJ Bell customers say they are considering investing in UK shares in 2026.
“You would need to have been living under a rock not to at least have caught wind of the Government’s efforts to boost investing in the UK. Rachel Reeves has been banging the drum for economic growth since before Labour came to power in July last year, with an emphasis on savers moving from cash to investing a key pillar of that strategy. However, the Government’s approach has often been muddled at best.”
Coatsworth said that while the Government’s aims are right, its approach has added “further complexity” into the retail investing space.
He said: “The Chancellor’s flagship policy of reducing the Cash ISA allowance is unlikely to push more savers towards investing. Instead, it is far more likely to act as another barrier to the nation’s savers finally dipping their toes into investing.
“These results also demonstrate that investors already have a significant natural home bias. The Government should therefore focus on simplifying the existing retail investing landscape, starting with the merging of Cash and Stocks and Shares ISAs, to remove the clear barriers that prevent many from feeling confident enough to invest.
“Not only would that likely result in more money ultimately funnelling into the UK, but it would also bring about exactly the retail investing revolution so strongly desired without uprooting the current ISA landscape.”
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