Neil Carmichael
Main Page: Neil Carmichael (Conservative - Stroud)Department Debates - View all Neil Carmichael's debates with the Department for Education
(11 years, 11 months ago)
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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.
Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con)
Will the Minister join me in congratulating Advanced Insulation, a firm in my constituency, which has just won the Queen’s award for enterprise? Does he agree that such firms are emblematic? We need to demonstrate that we are good at innovating and exporting, and that that is the direction of travel for economic growth.
Greg Clark
I will indeed join my hon. Friend in congratulating that company. In fact, a record number of the recent Queen’s awards, announced last month on Her Majesty’s birthday, were for small businesses, which shows that this country’s small businesses have a huge amount to contribute to the future success of the nation.