Small Businesses

Debate between Jeremy Lefroy and Brian Binley

Tuesday 7th September 2010 Westminster Hall

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure, Mr. Hollobone, to speak under your chairmanship during my first debate in Westminster Hall, and I welcome you to the Chair.

The Government clearly have a great interest in the subject of this debate. The excellent Green Paper, “Financing a Private Sector Recovery”, which was published in July, states that

“the ability of business to access finance will play a key part in determining the shape and sustainability of the recovery.”

The recovery depends on the two issues that are of most concern in the economy—reducing unemployment and improving Government finances—so it is clear that businesses’ access to finance is of the utmost importance. Such access is vital for all businesses, so I shall explain why I am concentrating on small businesses in this debate. I am speaking broadly of those to which the Green Paper refers as small and medium-sized enterprises with a turnover of below £25 million a year.

The first reason is that although most businesses experience difficulty in raising finance at some stage, SMEs, as the Green Paper states,

“may face more of a challenge given their reliance on bank lending, and the fact that they have historically faced greater challenges accessing external finance.”

The Green Paper also points out that the question of whether existing Government schemes are

“sufficient to ensure that finance is available to SMEs as confidence recovers and demand revives is of central importance.”

The second reason is the importance of SMEs to our economy. There are 4.8 million of them, and they account for more than 50% of private sector employment and turnover. Those statistics alone show that SMEs are likely to have the most impact on creating jobs and restoring public finances.

The third reason is that SMEs and especially new businesses are likely to produce the best return in the number of jobs created for the available finance. Estimates of the capital cost of job creation are difficult to come by, and clearly they vary from sector to sector, but there are examples of funds making loans to small businesses that have shown over many years that they can create a job with a loan—not a grant—of as little as £4,000 in fixed and working capital. The cost to the state of one person out of work is, at a conservative estimate, at least £5,000 a year. That money serves only to increase our burgeoning national debt and gives nothing in return to the recipient or the state. I am sure that any Government, especially one who have shown in the Green Paper such welcome clarity in their analysis, would be keen to ensure that such funds, which provide such an excellent rate of return to society, are given every encouragement and incentive to flourish. I shall return to that.

I must establish some facts, and I shall start with the banks. I have obtained figures from four major high street banks and the following points emerge. First, utilisation of existing bank facilities is as low as 44% in one major high street bank, and a total of £45 billion of unused capacity in another.

[Mr Brian Binley (Northampton South) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on obtaining this important debate. He rightly said that the matter is vital to budget strategy. My concern emanates from access to capital becoming more difficult. All the facts tell us that that has become more difficult over the past 12 months, and that is not helpful. At the same time, Government bodies, particularly G20, are piling desire on banks to build up their capital asset base—by £130 billion in the case of G20—and that affects their ability to lend. Would it be right to ease that pressure at this time, and is it not more important to ensure that small businesses have working capital to enable the number of jobs to increase?

[Jeremy Lefroy]

My hon. Friend makes some important points. He is one of the most expert Members in this subject, and I agree with him. It is important to increase capital and the banks are doing so. Their total profit in the past year was £15 billion, so they are gradually increasing capital, particularly as some are not paying dividends. But financing the recovery is of greater long-term interest, not only to the nation, but to the banks, and I entirely support what my hon. Friend said.

Another point arising from the survey of banks is that businesses are currently repaying debt rather than borrowing more. One bank made a net repayment of £1.4 billion during the last quarter, so money is coming out of the small business sector rather than going into it. Banks have also increased their lending to all sizes of company, including SMEs, and one reported that lending to SMEs was up by 38% during the past eight months, albeit to only £1.4 billion. Another lent £10.9 billion to SMEs during the 12 months to March 2010, and approved 80% of applicants.

That is the story from the banks’ perspective. The picture is of some increase in lending to SMEs, combined with a cautious approach by businesses to borrowing, with many reducing borrowing rather seeking an increase. From their point of view, there does not seem to be a major problem with capacity. However, a survey in February by the Institute of Directors—I declare an interest as I am a member—paints a somewhat different picture, because 57% of directors said that their application for finance had been rejected by their bank and 83% of those who were declined for bank finance were not offered information on the Government’s enterprise finance guarantee scheme. That worries me.

Tellingly, one in five businesses which said that they needed additional capital did not investigate bank loans or overdrafts because they believed that they would be declined, saddled with disproportionately high costs or required to comply with requests for security that they did not have.