Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Kevin Hollinrake Excerpts
Tuesday 11th February 2020

(4 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
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Let me tell the hon. Lady what we have seen under 10 years of Tory rule, after Labour’s great recession. We have had nine consecutive years of growth. We have an economy that is nearly 17% bigger than it was in 2010, and 3.9 million jobs have been created—I would think that a party that calls itself the Labour party would welcome that. Unemployment is at its lowest level for 45 years, and according to the International Monetary Fund, our economy will grow faster this year than those of Italy, Japan, France and Germany.

Kevin Hollinrake Portrait Kevin Hollinrake (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)
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Small and medium-sized enterprises are critical to economic opportunity and would undoubtedly benefit from greater access to business finance, yet challenger banks suffer from the same capital requirements as larger banks, despite the fact that they do not present the same systemic risk. Will my right hon. Friend say what he might be able to do to change that situation?

Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
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This is something that I have discussed with regulators. My hon. Friend is right in his general point about challenger banks and the risks that they may or may not represent. It is right that we take a fresh look at this because having more competition in the banking sector is a good thing, especially for SMEs.