Martin defends Chelsea's right to spend own money

10.16.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 7th Oct 2008

Speaking on the government's plans to spend millions of pounds lying in dormant accounts, Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood has defended the right of Chelsea Building Society to allocate the money according to its members' priorities not the government's.

The government's plan is to take money from dormant accounts held by any bank or building society with more than seven billion pounds in assets and give it to the Big Lottery Fund to distribute according to priorities set by the government.

'This is yet another case of this government's controlling tendencies,' commented Martin 'politicians meddling when they should leave well alone. Chelsea's charitable Foundation has a good reputation and a strong record of accountability and transparency. Why divert dormant account money from Chelsea to a central, government-directed fund? Chelsea have shown over decades that they are more than capable of spending charitable funds according to their members' priorities. The government should keep its paws off Chelsea members' money'.