Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Metcalfe Excerpts

Tuesday 14th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

No, Gloucester is a long way from the north-east of England.

[Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)]

Q7. What fiscal steps he is taking to support private sector job creation.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Danny Alexander)]

More than 1.25 million private sector jobs have been created since the first quarter of 2010. At the Budget, we took additional steps to support job creation—for example, by further reducing the rate of corporation tax to 20%, through a new employment allowance for national insurance to encourage every business to create jobs in this country and by extending the seed enterprise investment scheme to encourage start-up investment in the UK.

[Stephen Metcalfe]

Will my right hon. Friend consider taking further measures? For example, the provision of cheap, easy-to-access finance remains an issue for many small and medium-sized enterprises. With more than 3 million SMEs in our country, will the Government consider creating their own easy-to-access, less risk-averse provision, which I think would seriously stimulate both growth and job creation?

[Danny Alexander]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who raises an important issue. We are all aware of the continuing difficulties of small firms in getting access to the finance they need. The business bank, which is being taken forward by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, is acting to address gaps in the financial offering for small firms. The funding for lending scheme is substantially expanding lending to small businesses, which is one of its objectives. The business finance partnership is investing £87 million through non-bank channels, such as peer-to-peer platforms, that can reach SMEs in a different way.