Mark Lazarowicz
Main Page: Mark Lazarowicz (Labour (Co-op) - Edinburgh North and Leith)Department Debates - View all Mark Lazarowicz's debates with the Department for Education
(12 years, 6 months ago)
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Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op)
13. The most recent Bank of England survey says that smaller firms continue to report that they are unable to obtain credit and that it has become harder to secure long-term funding. That issue is raised by Members on both sides of the House every month at BIS questions. The Government may have introduced some measures to provide finance to small businesses, but they are clearly not doing enough. Is it not time to develop some new policies?
Greg Clark
All Members of the House recognise the need to encourage banks to lend to small businesses. There is some good news; the volume of lending to small businesses in 2011—the latest year for which figures are available—was £75 billion, a rise of 13%, but there is more to be done. With my colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, we are doing everything we can to encourage banks to lend to small businesses.