Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Bill Esterson Excerpts
Monday 8th January 2018

(6 years, 10 months ago)

Ministerial Corrections
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The following is an extract from Questions to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 12 December 2017.
Bill Esterson Portrait Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)
- Hansard - -

Despite having the fifth biggest economy in the world—soon to be the sixth—the UK is ranked only 48th in the global enterprise league; 48th out of five really takes some doing. But this is not just about the lack of support for start-ups. Among small and medium-sized enterprises business confidence is falling and costs are rising, and, as the Bank of England’s figures show, access to finance is still at its lowest level since 2010. Do the Government have any excuse for their woeful failure to support our smallest businesses?