Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill

Debate between Lord Stoneham of Droxford and Lord Popat

Wednesday 11th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford]

The zero-contracts did not come about—

[Lord Popat (Con)]

Order please. We are on Report. I am afraid that intervention is limited.

Royal Mail Sale

Debate between Lord Stoneham of Droxford and Lord Popat

Wednesday 16th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Popat]

My Lords, here was a company which prior to privatisation was turning around £9 billion a year. It lost money for a number of years, to the tune of £1 billion. Preceding the era of privatisation it made a £300 million profit, hence we went for the flotation, at the time when there was the real threat of the American debt crisis as well as unions threatening to strike—and each strike day costs roughly £30 million, so a £300 million profit can be wiped out in 10 days. It was a successful flotation, and the Secretary of State has appointed the noble Lord, Lord Myners, to look into how best we can do any future flotations.

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD)]

My Lords, despite the generally successful privatisation of the Royal—

Pfizer and AstraZeneca

Debate between Lord Stoneham of Droxford and Lord Popat

Tuesday 6th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Popat]

My Lords, as a Government we have a role to play—but a very limited one—when it comes to takeovers and mergers. All takeovers and mergers depend on boards of directors and shareholders. Like all global pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer has faced challenges from many of its drugs going off-patent and having to replace them with new, innovative medicines. Both Pfizer and AstraZeneca have had to restructure major research projects around the world. That is a reality for some of these research and development companies.

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD)]

My Lords, it seems that without a formal bid it is important that the Government maintain their neutrality on the merits of any bid but that they still have a major interest in jobs and research. Have the Government researched whether the advantages of the so-called tax-inversion scheme could be obtained without Pfizer establishing their international corporate headquarters in the UK?

[Lord Popat]

I agree with the noble Lord; the Government are very neutral on this thing and there is no formal bid at this stage. If the merger or acquisition process continues, we will keep a close eye on the subject to make sure that Pfizer cannot come and invest in this country simply as a tax haven.

Start-up Loans

Debate between Lord Stoneham of Droxford and Lord Popat

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD)]

My Lords, the shortfall in business investment is the biggest problem facing the economic recovery. I welcome this announcement of increased support for small business loans but recognise that it is one of many channels required to stimulate investment in small business. I have three questions. Are the Government sure that enough is being done to mentor, support and help networking for business people to take full advantage of these schemes and are they doing their best to make these schemes as simple as possible? Are technical and further education colleges being made the focus for small business development and for courses on how these loans can be used and how specific small businesses can take advantage of them? As well as technical and further education colleges, universities should be involved in this as well. Are the banks, particularly the state-regulated banks, being pressurised to redevelop their local and regional systems and get back to their historic original role of helping local businesses?

[Lord Popat]

My Lords, on business investment, I am pleased to say that there is a return of consumer and business confidence in the economy. Bank lending to businesses is going up. In fact we had a large increase in gross domestic lending to businesses in the past 12 months, a lot more than we had in the early part of 2012. Although net lending has dropped compared with the peak of 2008, it has just started to increase, so there is some business confidence and that will help business investment, which will help our growth. As I mentioned yesterday, our growth forecast has gone up from 0.6% to 1.4%, which is good news. With regard to bank lending, we have a large number of schemes. Once again, we are marketing very strongly awareness of these schemes, which will enable a number of businesses to borrow money and grow further.