1 May, 2026

This week, major financial firms including Aviva, Barclays, Hargreaves Lansdown and St James’s Place joined forces with the Treasury on a nationwide push to encourage first‑time investing. The campaign, called Invest for the Future, is aimed squarely at savers who keep most or all their money in cash. Its ambition is large:  persuade up to ten million people to move some of their long‑term savings into investments.

Research behind the campaign makes a strong case for action, finding that 42 percent of adults have savings but no investments at all, while a further 19 percent say they would like to learn more about investing. FCA data also points to a heavy bias towards holding cash savings, even among people with significant assets. Fear of loss plays a big role here, often amplified by risk warnings that make investing feel closer to gambling than to long‑term planning for the future.

Enter the Invest for the Future campaign, which uses a mascot, Savvy the Squirrel, and deliberately echoes the 1986 Tell Sid campaign, which encouraged UK savers to buy shares in the newly privatised British Gas. The aim is to make investing feel familiar and mainstream, reframing it as something ordinary people do with their money, and treating risk as a normal and manageable part of long‑term decision‑making rather than something to fear. Crucially, this is not just a marketing exercise. The campaign is backed by real policy shifts. Regulators have relaxed rules so banks can offer more targeted support, while a government‑backed review has pushed back on overly cautious approaches to risk framing.

The campaign’s reception has been mixed, particularly around tone and ambition. Some welcome Savvy the Squirrel as an accessible way to soften the idea of investing, while others see it as just one more friendly mascot in an already crowded financial landscape, unlikely to stand out or shift behaviour on its own. Regulatory changes such as targeted support are broadly supported, but some argue the campaign stops short of addressing deeper barriers, such as limited access to attractive UK investment opportunities.

Ultimately, Savvy the Squirrel is unlikely to be enough on its own. But bringing together government, regulators and major financial institutions around a shared goal matters. Change at this scale rarely comes from a single idea or character. If this campaign succeeds, it will be less because of one mascot and more because enough influential actors are finally moving in the same direction.

By Meg Seckel