Brian Binley
Main Page: Brian Binley (Conservative - Northampton South)Department Debates - View all Brian Binley's debates with the HM Treasury
(14 years, 1 month ago)
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Mr Brian Binley (Northampton South) (Con)
I cannot let this opportunity pass without saying how good it is to follow the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann). He always speaks honestly, from his own, rather unique perspective, and he enlivened the first match of the season—to my mind anyway. However, he is the only man I know who can play for both sides in the same match, and I enjoyed his contribution.
The Minister talked about the need to support businesses large and small. You will know that I share that view, Mr Deputy Speaker, because therein lies the nub of whether the Budget strategy will succeed or fail. A flourishing business sector is vital to a sustained economic recovery, and small and medium-sized enterprises are a major element in the growth agenda. They are responsible for slightly more than 50% of the private sector work force, and they are the sector that will provide the jobs and wealth to make the Budget strategy work, given the opportunity. Sadly, however, the economic downturn hit the sector especially hard. SMEs were in the process of growing 2 million jobs over a 10-year period, when at the same time UK plc was shedding 1.5 million. If ever there was a trend to prove that SMEs are capable of creating growth, those figures ought to bring us comfort. The downturn exposed their vulnerability, however.
Everyone knows that we need to mend the roof while the sun is shining, and to stock up the larder during the good times—everyone, that is, except the members of the previous Labour Government. They told the regulators to apply a soft touch, and they failed to keep an eye on the big picture. As a result, banks were over-leveraged, bad debts mounted, asset lending ratios got out of kilter and banking institutions became unstable, resulting in a global recession. Many small business men saw it coming, and many of them took action. My company was one of those that acted at the appropriate time. Sadly, however, our recently deposed Prime Minister failed to do so. How could he, when he so arrogantly believed that he had done away with bust? No statement made in recent years will come back to haunt a man as much as that one will continue to do.
Sadly, the regulators are now overcompensating for their negligence by making heavy demands, especially on the very sector in which growth is most likely to occur—the SME sector—and things will get worse unless we do something about it. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has recommended that banks increase their capital reserves even further. Banks are being asked to increase their common equity as a percentage of core capital. However, just as the pendulum swung too far in the good times, so it is swinging too far in the opposite direction now, and that is having an adverse effect on lending to small businesses. Banks have already taken major steps to increase capital reserves, and there is every chance that the Basel proposals will be approved in December. That would take more money out of the economy and lock it up in bank vaults just at the time when business needs more working capital to finance growth.
Alison McGovern
What would the hon. Gentleman say to the representatives of small businesses in Wirral, to whom I speak regularly, who are concerned that they will no longer be able to benefit from investment allowances or benefit to the same extent as big businesses from the Government’s recent cuts in corporation tax?
Mr Binley
As the founder of two small businesses, I can tell the hon. Lady that investment benefits are not the major concern. The major concern is the ability to get money from the banks to act as working capital. I can see that the incentives those benefits provide are helpful, but they are not the core problem that small businesses are facing at the moment. The truth is that the Government will have to review a number of areas of policy in order to deal with the core problem.
I was saying that the banks were building up their capital assets to a dangerous degree. J. P. Morgan has recently announced new rules that will increase its risk-weighted asset base by 25%. Research also suggests that Barclays will achieve an even greater increase, of some 44%. Of course banks must be soundly based and properly regulated, but we have to get the balance right. All the evidence suggests that the capital reserve build-up has a sizeable detrimental effect on the ability of SMEs to capitalise on growth opportunities. As I said earlier, that will threaten the Budget strategy, unless the Government deal with the problem, and I hope that the Economic Secretary will come back to me on this matter.
Research by the Federation of Small Businesses suggests that 24% of SMEs are already having difficulty coming to terms with current increases in the cost of money, and the new capital requirements will compound that situation. This could not come at a worse time. More businesses are in danger of going to the wall through overtrading during the upturn than folded during the downturn.
Bill Esterson
I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s comments about the difficulty that small businesses are having in getting access to money from the banks. Does he agree that there will be a danger to small businesses if too many people in the public sector lose their jobs, because they are important customers of those businesses? The effect of that could represent just as great a danger as the problem he has outlined.
Mr Binley
I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman. The truth is that the previous Government were so profligate as to create problems for our children and grandchildren, and I find that immoral. I do not want that to happen to my children and grandchildren, and the only way to deal with financial difficulties in a business, a family or any other organisation is to cut spending and earn more money. There is no other answer, and the sooner the Opposition recognise that, the sooner the people of this country will listen to them a little more.
John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD)
The Opposition wonder why this Government are in hock to the markets. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is because we have borrowed too much, as Tony Blair admits in his memoirs?
Mr Binley
I am grateful for that intervention. The truth of the matter is that we have a budget deficit of £70 million, but there is more lying behind it that we are not dealing with until we get the deficit down. There is the £1,450 billion of national debt, and if we add to that the money owed on private finance initiative schemes, the money owed to public sector pensions and the money that we have used to underwrite the banks, we get a figure of £3,000 billion. I asked the Treasury what a billion looked like, and I was told what a billion seconds was. This story has been heard in the House before, but I was shocked to learn that 1 billion seconds equates to just over 32 years. That puts into perspective the size of the problem that this nation faces. Again I plead with Opposition Members to come to terms with the problem, because I genuinely do not believe that we can solve it unless they recognise where it started.
Mr Binley
If the hon. Gentleman will allow me to finish, I will allow him to intervene again. Steady down.
This is about the size of the national debt and the deficit and their relationship to our triple A rating. If we had not taken the action that we did, it is likely that we would have lost that rating, which would have made all our interest costs considerably higher and the deficit massively bigger, causing the country even greater problems.
Mr Binley
I do not accept that point of view. This is not just about the size of the national debt; we need to consider its size in relation to the economy. Therein lies one of our problems. The fact is that ours is one of the worst situations in the G20. I should like to advise the hon. Gentleman that, as long as he and his party remain in denial, they will be unable to move forward, and that, for the good of politics, they need to move forward just a little.
Alec Shelbrooke
I should like to expand on my hon. Friend’s point about the national debt. Is it not true that the size of personal debt in this country, which was encouraged with a quiet wink by the previous Government, has also held back our ability to recover from the recession?
Mr Binley
My hon. Friend’s intervention takes us back to a Chancellor of the Exchequer—later Prime Minister—who suggested to the Financial Services Authority that it should apply a light touch. A light touch meant 125% mortgages, self-assessment of mortgage requests, and people with five, six and seven credit cards with their credit up to the hilt. My hon. Friend is absolutely right.
Let me return to the subject of the banks. I made the point that banks had to be soundly based, but that it was a question of the balance. As I said, research by the Federation of Small Businesses suggests that 24% of small and medium-sized enterprises are already experiencing difficulties in coming to terms with current increases in the cost of money, and the new capital requirements will compound the problem.
This could not have come at a worse time. More businesses are in danger of going to the wall through overtrading. I want to explain that a little more, because it is not readily understood in the House. Business growth costs businesses money: it is as simple as that. The more orders a business gets, the more employees it needs and the more raw materials it requires. Those are all up-front costs that simply cannot be recovered in the short term. Cash flow drag must be financed if growth is to be sustained, and growth will not be sustained if working capital is not forthcoming. That may be a simplistic view, but it is a very honest view of the reasons for which people are more likely to go to the wall during an upturn than during a downturn. They overtrade, and find that they do not have the capital to sustain that overtrading.
Owners of SMEs have spoken in their thousands of the collapse of their relationships with the banks. The number of complaints to the banking ombudsman about draconian demands placed on loans and overdrafts has increased by 119% in this year alone. So what should the Government do? First, they should recognise that the new capital requirements called for by global regulators should be balanced, and that their implementation should be sensibly programmed to ensure that real money is freed to support real growth in the SME sector. If that means getting tough with the banks and the regulators, so be it. Governments still have to get tough on occasions, and this is the area in which they need to start.
However, the Government need to go further. They need to provide greater choice and competition in the high street, particularly in the banking sector. They might even consider the creation of post banks, as suggested by the Federation of Small Businesses. That is not a quick answer, but it will help to sustain growth through the third, fourth and fifth years if the Government get down to it now. Both moves should increase available credit, and reverse the decline in local lending resources.
The Government could also encourage the mutual sector to play a greater role. I find it regrettable that Nationwide, the country’s largest building society, has chosen to restrict its banking services to just 30,000 small businesses, a minute fraction of the total. It has also decided to close its business investor account to new customers and to limit the number of account transactions to just two a month, levying 30 days’ notice of account closure for any customer who breaks that limit. Members may agree that that is a particularly unfortunate trend at a time when greater competition, wider options and a more flexible approach are needed. I hope that the Chancellor will talk to the mutuals collectively, because they have a role to play and can be more effective than they are being at present.
Recent reports suggest that Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, HBOS and NatWest collectively handle 85% of the SME banking market. The Bank of England financial stability report suggests that banks are capable of consolidating their capital while at the same time improving their lending to the real economy, which suggests that there is an attitude among banks that needs to change. We have said that in the House week in week out, month in month out: when are the banks going to listen?
I appeal to the Chancellor to talk straight, talk tough and talk honest to the banks, many of which we now own. They have a responsibility, not only because we helped to bail them out, but because they were a major factor in getting us into trouble. The message should be sent loud and clear from the Chamber that they should face up to their responsibilities, and recognise that it really is time that they came to the aid of their nation.
Dr William McCrea (South Antrim) (DUP)
Many present and past Ministers acknowledged that there was a great need for banks to listen to the small and medium-sized businesses in our country, many of which are struggling. Previous Ministers said that they would be strong with the banks, and would make them listen. How will the Government make banks really pay attention to what is happening in industry today?
Mr Binley
How I wish I knew the answer—but I am sure that one of the answers is to get the banks’ heads together, and perhaps do a light amount of knocking.
I recognise that the banks run businesses, but let me draw attention to what the FSB has said, which I think is very relevant. It estimated that if banks limited bonuses and dividends to pre-crisis levels, they could produce approximately £10 billion of additional capital, which would finance £50 billion of new loans. Is that not a lesson for the banks? We are not saying, “Do not pay your people”, but we are saying, “In a time of difficulty, use restraint. Transfer that money to your lending coffers, and get it out to small businesses.”
Perhaps the Economic Secretary will be kind enough to pursue that challenge, remembering also that capital reserves in banks, if lent to Government, continue to be classified as such. I think that that is a pretty important point. If lent to Government, those reserves are not considered to be risk capital, and are consequently considered to be part of their capital assets.
I shall try to wind up my speech quickly, because I always try to do what the Whips tell me. However, I want to make a few more important points. I welcome the Government’s efforts to increase the availability of the guaranteed loan scheme, but I ask the Economic Secretary to consider ways of unlocking capital reserves to increase the flow of capital available for distribution in that way.
The situation for many small and medium-sized businesses is dire. The Government know that, because we are told about it every day. Figures produced by the Bank of England give the impression that bank lending rose by 0.9% in August, but if we dig a little deeper, we find that a large proportion of those loans were issued in foreign currency, and that actual lending in pounds sterling decreased by £400 million. The truth of the matter is that bank lending this August was less than it was 12 months ago.
I wanted to talk about a couple of clauses in the Bill, but because my Whip has kindly asked me to curtail my remarks, I will do as he asks. I am an ambitious chap, and I hope that he will consider that I am being kind to him.
I welcome Clause 13, which removes the requirement for SMEs to own intellectual property in order to qualify for research and development grants. Sadly, too few small businesses are made aware of how research and development relief can benefit them—I think that the hon. Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) made that point earlier—and I urge the Minister to make more effort to increase awareness in the sector. I also welcome the announcement by a consortium of city financiers of their plan to create a British enterprise bank, which I understand will lend exclusively to the SME sector. That is one example of bankers facing up to their responsibilities, and we should congratulate them.
David Simpson (Upper Bann) (DUP)
As the hon. Gentleman said, we understand that banks are running a business, but small businesses today are finding it very difficult to provide the security that banks currently seek. The hon. Gentleman used the word “draconian”. Surely something must be done in that regard.
Mr Binley
Of course it must. Clauses and conditions for small businesses are now one of the major off-putting factors. Such businesses must be allowed to borrow to create the growth that we need. There is massive pressure to change overdraft to loan. Most small businesses do not want a loan. That is too much of a burden around their necks. They want an overdraft facility, but the trouble is that banks are pricing overdraft facilities out of their reach and that should be taken up, too.
May I conclude therefore—although my Whip has left? Good things are happening, but much more needs to be done if the level of growth required to assure the success of the Budget strategy is to be achieved. We are debating a Bill that facilitates that strategy, but does not do much to ensure that SMEs get the working capital that they need to provide the growth on which the strategy depends. Action is urgently needed and the House will expect to hear from the Economic Secretary what the good lady and the Chancellor will do to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses are properly resourced to play their part in restoring the country's wealth and in growing the jobs to reduce the budget deficit. Once we have balanced the budget, we can get on to dealing with the national debt, bequeathed by a Labour party that seems to think that it is morally acceptable to expect our children and grandchildren to pay for its profligacy. I find that reprehensible. I therefore look forward to being reassured in that respect, and so, I suspect, does the nation.
Justine Greening
I decided to pick out the piece in which the hon. Gentleman talked about his party, which he obviously supports. Our plans are all about tackling the deficit. Funding that debt will cost our economy £43 billion this year. That means that every taxpayer in Britain will pay almost £1,400 of income tax to service that debt interest. The hon. Gentleman might consider that a good use of taxpayers’ money rather than spending it on front-line services. I do not. Unless we take the difficult but fair decisions that we are taking now to sort out the deficit, we will not be in a position to undertake sustainable funding of our public services again. That is why the measures that we are taking are so important.
Many of the clauses in the Bill were brought forward by the previous Government. We consulted stakeholders over the summer because we were keen to make sure that we have a more open and considered approach for our tax legislation than we have had in the past. Many respondents have been clear about how welcome that approach is. It has made the Bill more transparent, more robust and better focused. It was a pleasure to hear from the hon. Member for Bristol West (Stephen Williams) who, I believe, is a fellow chartered accountant and could therefore appreciate the care that has been taken with the Bill.
Let me pick up on some of the technical questions raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Mark Simmonds) and the hon. Member for Dundee East (Stewart Hosie). I am pleased that my hon. Friend welcomes the measure on REITs in the Bill. I will write to him on some of the more specific issues that he raised. He should recognise that the measure in the Bill is symptomatic of the fact that we see REITs as a positive vehicle, and we will see what we can do to support them further.
The hon. Member for Dundee East raised so many issues so quickly that I barely had time to scribble them all down. I hope we will return to many of them in Committee.
The other thing that foxed me was that the hon. Gentleman went in reverse order, starting at clause 25 and moving on to clauses 7 and 5. But, he asked some broad questions, and on the corporation tax and petroleum revenue tax changes he was right to say that the measures are about creating a more harmonised system. He raised many specific issues, and we can go into more detail about them, including clause 7, in Committee. On clause 5, he raised a number of good questions about guidance, and we are looking to revise that. We are talking to stakeholders and hearing about the issues that they want clarified; indeed, he mentioned some of them in his speech. His points were well made, and I look forward to continuing the debate in Committee.
There are further measures in the Bill to support the private sector and contribute to more balanced growth in the UK. We heard from my hon. Friends the Members for Northampton South (Mr Binley), for Dover, for Watford (Richard Harrington), for Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke) and for Macclesfield (David Rutley) about how important it is that our Government take steps to support business so that business in turn can create jobs. We must not forget that without the steps that we took in our emergency Budget, small companies would face a small companies corporation tax rise, not one that is going to fall, and a national insurance rise—the jobs tax. Instead, they can look forward to enjoying a reduction in national insurance liability, so we are taking the steps that we need to take.
Justine Greening
My hon. Friend makes a very good point, and I am sure that he is aware of how clause 5 ensures that state aid clearance of the enterprise investment scheme and venture capital trusts takes place. In 2007-08, the enterprise investment scheme supported investment of £7 billion in more than 15,000 companies, and we want to see that enhanced. We are cutting the small profits rate of corporation tax, and to follow up my hon. Friend’s question, I note that the Government plan to create a growth capital fund, which we think will provide a further £237 million of enterprise capital funds, so we are very conscious of the issues that he raises. We are in continuing discussions with the banking industry to ensure that credit flows to the companies that so badly need it—for the very reasons that he so eloquently set out in his contribution to the debate.
The Bill is not just about supporting business, although that is a key part of it. As my hon. Friends the Members for Portsmouth North (Penny Mordaunt) and for Devizes (Claire Perry) pointed out, it includes measures that will support some of the most vulnerable people in our society. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North, who made an excellent contribution on the measure—I think it is clause 31—to help trusts that have been set up to compensate asbestos victims. There are further measures in the Bill not only to support people who are shared lives carers and, indeed, carers more generally, but to support through the tax system those people who act as guardians or look after children under a residence order. My hon. Friend the Member for Devizes, who gave a fantastic speech, too, talked about those measures for carers. They are badly needed and will, I hope, have a good impact.
To wrap up, the Bill contains many necessary measures that will ease the burdens on business and help the most vulnerable in our society. Owing to the need for urgent action before the summer, there was simply no time to consider them when the Finance (No.2) Act 2010 went through the House. However, I know that many Members from all parts of the House will want to join me in Committee for more detailed scrutiny of the Bill’s clauses.
This Bill, while unglamorous in comparison with its predecessors, is important. It represents clear progress, it is considered in its approach, and I commend it to the House.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill accordingly read a Second time; to stand committed to a Public Bill Committee (Standing Order No. 63.)