Business of the House

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I hope that the hon. Gentleman will welcome the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Local Government on Monday, which addressed the parlous state of the housing and construction industry we inherited, the action we are taking to bring public land back into use, the incentives we are giving to local authorities to develop and the help we are getting through building societies and banks for first-time buyers. We are taking effective action to kick-start the sluggish housing economy that we inherited.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

The economy of my constituency is almost entirely made up of small and medium-sized enterprises, public support for which comes from both sides of the England and Wales border. Will my right hon. Friend programme a debate to discuss the future of SMEs and support for them, with particular reference to cross-border issues?

[Sir George Young]

There will be an opportunity to debate that issue in the debate on the economy that I announced at the beginning of this question session. We are determined to make more resources available to SMEs and, as part of Project Merlin, the Chancellor announced that the banks intend to lend £190 billion of new credit to businesses, which is a significant increase on the £179 billion in the previous year. We are taking other action, such as reducing the corporation tax rate for small businesses. I would welcome my hon. Friend’s contribution to that debate and the response from Ministers will set out all the action we are taking to help SMEs.