An influential Labour MP is today urging the chancellor to give more help to pensioners in Wednesday's Budget.

In an interview with ePolitix.com, the Dumbarton MP John McFall calls for a "transparent" Budget that delivers results on the ground.

"I would like to see what I call a see-through budget. That is, transparency between the money pledged and the results on the ground. Also, it is less than useful if we have higher spending on different policies and departments without the necessary reforms," he told this website.

McFall, the chairman of the Treasury select committee, said more needed to be done to address pensioner poverty.

"On poverty, we still have a lot of pensioners who are very poor," he said, noting that until recent reforms the poorest 20 per cent were living on minimum income support levels.

"Such inequalities need addressing. The new Pensioner Credit will go some way to reducing these inequalities. But an increase in pensions for the poorest pensioners is still needed."

While there has been criticism that the new range of tax credits has over-complicated the system and confused the public, McFall defended their introduction as "extremely important".

"To date, people have been insufficiently aware of what these benefits have to offer and their entitlement to them. Simplicity is required when explaining the nature of these benefits to the public, otherwise people in the target group may not understand the credits and, therefore, not claim them," he added.

Banks facing new inquiry

After a damning Competition Commission investigation into the way the major clearing banks have treated small business customers, McFall also raised the prospect that the Treasury select committee could look into ways of compelling banks to invest in communities.

"In the next few weeks the Treasury committee will be inviting the Federation of Small Businesses and others to give their views as to how they see the way forward. I think change is required in the banking system," he said.

He raised parallels with the America's 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which compels banks to invest in poorer neighbourhoods.

"Now I know it is not a straight read-across between the US and the UK, but I think we need to have a wider look at the banks and the financial services and their obligations to the communities in which they exist and from which they take their profits.

"Corporate responsibility is very important and it is something my committee will be taking a closer look at."

And in the wake of the collapse of US energy giant Enron, the banking, accountancy and legal professions are also facing closer committee scrutiny.

"I think Enron has raised very big issues for the accountancy, banking and the legal professions, as well as for management and governance. Make no mistake, this is the biggest crisis the accountancy profession has faced in its history. It won't go away without a thorough examination of practices in these areas," he told ePolitix.com.

McFall added: "The role and responsibility for non-executive [directors] needs to be looked at afresh. The credibility of many groups are at stake here."

Financial services regulation.

With the Financial Services Authority assuming responsibility over most of the financial services industry in December last year, McFall said it had been doing "reasonably well" since its inception.

"However, because they have only had this responsibility for a short time, it has only scratched the surface and any change to date has been on a superficial level. There have been plenty of press releases and policy position papers produced, but few solutions to the problems which exist have been provided yet."

He called on the FSA to expand its public education program over future months to address issues of public confusion when buying financial products.

"I think the major problem is to do with public education. People still get very confused when they buy financial products. I believe the public education remit the FSA carries out needs to be substantially enhanced over the coming months and years.

"There needs to be much more education about endowment mortgages and with-profit policies," he said.

He also called for the FSA's remit to be extended to include mortgage advice when it takes over responsibility for regulating mortgage sales later in the year.