Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Cryer Excerpts
Tuesday 10th December 2013

(10 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
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We are committed to ensuring that small and medium-sized enterprises have the access to finance that they need, and we were pleased with the recent announcement by the Bank of England and the Treasury on refocusing the funding for lending scheme on to SMEs from next year. My right hon. Friend will also know that, in the autumn statement, we announced further improvements in the lending appeals process and a consultation on requiring banks to share more information on SME lending.

Lord Cryer Portrait John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)
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T5. What assessment has the Chief Secretary to the Treasury made of the relationship between consistently falling real wages and the rapid growth of zero-hours contracts?

Danny Alexander Portrait Danny Alexander
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As the hon. Gentleman knows, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has been acting on zero-hours contracts; it is a subject that is currently under review in his Department. I have made a strong assessment of the connection between sustainable economic growth of the kind that this Government are delivering and the availability of jobs in the private sector, 1.4 million of which have been created since 2010.