Financial Services Bill

Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Excerpts

Wednesday 18th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Durham]

My Lords, my name is on this amendment and the noble Lords, Lord Lucas and Lord Sharkey, have said virtually everything I want to say. I will simply add that in the areas where the access to finance is most wanting, the creation of safe space—through regulation of the kind that the noble Lords described—is what will enable competition to start to break the stranglehold of some of our larger lenders, who neither lend in these areas themselves nor are willing to make space for others to lend in them. That is a fundamental reason why there is still a shortage of finance.

The Bank of England’s north-east agent in her report, which was published this morning, talked about inadequate supplies of finance to the SME sector in the north-east of England despite the valiant and determined efforts of the Government, through guarantee schemes, to make that possible—and those schemes are not providing finance at anything under 10%. The banks are simply layering charge upon charge upon charge. We need regulation to permit competition. It will not stop competition. I hope the Minister will see the advantage of this as it has been so eloquently put by previous speakers.

[Lord Tunnicliffe]

My Lords, these Benches do not have a particular view on Amendment 114. If the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, is to press this further at a later stage in light of the response from the Minister, we will have to think through whether we will support it. It clearly has consensus support in the Chamber tonight so we will look at it very carefully. In his response, can the Minister give a view on how wide or narrow he sees his amendments, particularly the extent to which they might have a general utility in, for want of a better term, future-proofing the legislation?

Turning to Amendment 117B, we all want to support innovation. Once again we do not have a view on this amendment, but if it is pressed at a further stage, what we always have to look at with innovation and competition is proportionality. Yes, innovation creates competition, new ideas and opportunities, but it may put the customer at risk. Proportionality has to be there to balance new opportunities with proper protection.