Oral Answers to Questions
Viscount Thurso Excerpts(14 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Vaizey
Under the Budget we have set up a new enterprise capital fund, into which the Government have put £25 million. We are looking for additional private funding, but I certainly recognise the importance of the venture capital industry and venture capital funding for small businesses.
John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
SMEs offer some of the best potential for future growth, but the biggest barrier to that is access to finance—in particular, I am talking about the failure of the enterprise finance guarantee scheme, because of the Catch-22 that it is the banks that SMEs apply to that say no. What can my hon. Friend do about that?
Mr Vaizey
We are expanding the enterprise finance guarantee scheme by an additional £200 million, and we understand that it will support some £700 million of extra bank lending, but I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman about the problem of securing bank lending. We are due to publish a Green Paper on business finance before the summer recess. I hope that that will address many of the issues that are involved.