Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Andrew Selous

Thursday 6th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I am not sure I shall need much protection because the firms in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency are already beating their way to my door. I believe 14 companies have availed themselves of the enterprise finance guarantee scheme, there have been five start-up loans and 17 other companies are using the growth accelerator, all in his patch.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

11. What his policy is on the future level of the national minimum wage.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)]

Our aim is to maximise the wages of the low-paid without it costing jobs and ensure the benefits of the recovery are shared by everyone. We fully support an independent Low Pay Commission and are currently considering this year’s recommendation to increase the national minimum wage by 3% to £6.50. This would represent the first real increase since the financial crisis. In addition, we are considering the Low Pay Commission’s response to how we can restore the real value of the national minimum wage, which has not kept pace with inflation since 2008.

[Andrew Selous]

I am looking forward to many of my constituents seeing a pay rise shortly as the minimum wage rises, but what is the Secretary of State doing to address the worrying productivity gap so that future wage rises are based on increases in productivity and earned output?

[Vince Cable]

My hon. Friend is right that if we are to sustain real increases in wages whether at the minimum level or above, there have to be productivity increases and many of the problems in the low-paid sectors like catering and care are to do with the fact that productivity levels are very low. I gather, for example, that in some of the lowest paid sectors the minimum wage is already 90% of the median. That reflects the low productivity in those industries.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Andrew Selous

Thursday 13th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

1. What steps he is taking to increase exports.

[The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)]

Our ambition is to double exports to £1 trillion by 2020. This ambition was reflected in the 2012 autumn statement, when UK Trade & Investment was allocated an extra £140 million to enable it to double the number of small and medium-sized enterprises supported from 25,000 to 50,000 by 2015.

[Andrew Selous]

The Government have made an excellent start, with exports to Brazil up by half and to India by more than half and those to China almost doubled, yet still only one in five SMEs exports. Were we to get that up to one in four, we could wipe out our trade deficit, so what efforts are the Government making to engage with the four out of five SMEs which currently do not export but whose products and services would be attractive to overseas markets?

[Vince Cable]

My hon. Friend analyses the problem correctly: we have to make a major effort in big emerging markets, which we have neglected in the past. We have identified 20. I have been to the majority of them, leading trade missions, as have my colleagues. With reference to raising awareness, for example, in May, a few weeks ago, we had 80 events across the country identifying 3,600 businesses with interests in emerging markets, and there is a greatly increased tempo of activity in the field through the establishment of chambers.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Vince Cable and Andrew Selous

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

There already are regulations that affect bankers’ bonuses, which we introduced long before the European Parliament and which firmly cap the amount of bonuses that can be paid out in cash, as opposed to stock, which is not redeemable in the short run. That reform has already been made in order to stabilise the banking system.

I agree that the banking crisis did enormous damage. As someone who has probably spent more time thinking and writing about it than most people in the House, I acknowledge that I have underestimated the damage that was done by the collapse of the banking system, especially the crippled, semi-state owned banks—to such an extent that even if we now ordered those banks to lend more, they would be institutionally incapable of doing so. What we have realised is that there are two problems. The first is the problem that has arisen from the banking collapse itself and the de-leveraging that followed it. The other is the fact that over a decade ago the bankers stripped out their capacity for local relationship banking. Effectively, they looted their banks and denuded them of the capacity to engage in sensible business lending. Of course, that was anticipated in the Cruickshank report, which the Labour Government ignored, but it has done serious damage that makes it difficult to revive conventional business lending. We are trying a series of initiatives to do that.

On Friday, a new tranche of money will be made available for non-bank lending. Today, we had the advanced manufacturing supply chain initiative, which is helping to fund our supply chains. I put in the Library this morning a written ministerial reply on the business bank, which gives a time profile for how that new institution will support challenger banks and new forms of wholesale financing in the banking sector. The Chancellor’s speech yesterday included a positive initiative on equity capital and helping to relieve some of the burdens on companies going to the alternative investment market on the equity side.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

The Secretary of State is right about the loss of relationship banking: we need to put that right. However, will he acknowledge that businesses can fund themselves in two ways? One is to go to the bank and the other is to raise share capital. What the Chancellor did yesterday on AIM shares and ISDX shares—getting rid of stamp duty—is incredibly useful, but does the Secretary of State agree that business owners need education in how to seek out share capital to grow their businesses? That is key.

[Vince Cable]

My hon. Friend is right. There are a series of bottlenecks in raising risk capital. At the top end, the problem is accessing equity markets, and at the bottom end the problem is in raising angel finance, which is something else that we are trying to support. As it happens, the business bank will have a role not just in lending, but in developing equity markets for small-scale companies.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Andrew Selous

Thursday 6th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Whenever I talk to business groups—which I do frequently—they unreservedly support the Government’s emphasis on financial stability That is something that the Labour party takes lightly, although we have emphasised it. There is a major agenda to revive the British economy, but in his question the hon. Gentleman made no reference to this morning’s housing statement. At the moment, construction is the most difficult sector in the British economy, because of the collapse that took place in the wake of the boom that his party created when in office. This morning, the Government have proposed a series of businesslike initiatives to free up sites for private development, to put substantial guarantees and resources behind social housing, and to revive a sector that was destroyed in the false bubble created by the hon. Gentleman’s Government.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T2. How much does the UK earn from overseas students, and what assessment has the Minister for Universities and Science made of the potential for further export growth from that sector?

Sunday Trading (London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Bill [Lords]

Debate between Vince Cable and Andrew Selous

Monday 30th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

The Trojan horse was invoked several times in the earlier debate, but I can give the right hon. Gentleman an absolute assurance that this is not a precedent. I shall dwell later on how we will reinforce that absolute commitment.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I am extremely grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way. He is being extremely generous very early on in his remarks. Will he give me some reassurance? What protection will be in place for, say, volunteer sports coaches or church workers with commitments on Sundays, if their volunteer commitments are threatened by having to work extra hours?

[Vince Cable]

Of course, they could opt out of the commitments, as is already provided for under existing legislation, which means that they will receive all the protections subject to unfair dismissal legislation.

Executive Pay

Debate between Vince Cable and Andrew Selous

Monday 23rd January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Again, I do not want to be too negative. One of my Labour predecessors, Patricia Hewitt, advanced the issue by introducing advisory votes. That was a step forward but it was not enough, and we have to go further. However, that step was usefully taken. My right hon. Friend asked specifically about pay ratios. I have said that those are useful metrics, and that we should encourage their use. However, companies have very different structures, and pay ratios mean different things. Therefore, mandating them is a different matter.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State agree that it is generally undesirable for public companies to pay more out in bonuses, particularly to their senior staff, than in dividends, especially as dividends are often paid out to pension funds, which include many members of the public on low incomes?

[Vince Cable]

Yes, my hon. Friend is correct. That is why one element of transparency that we have advocated is a breakdown of the different streams of payment by companies, which include payments to shareholders, payments to employees and other costs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Vince Cable and Andrew Selous

Thursday 9th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

The right hon. Gentleman has a short memory. He does not seem to appreciate that the failed model of growth that we inherited was not simply a question of the budget deficit, as we had a massive problem with consumer debt, which inhibits consumption; we had a massive property bubble, which collapsed; and we had a banking system, the largest in the developed world, that collapsed on us—and we are having to dig our way out. A major rebalancing of the economy is having to take place. It is difficult, it is painful, but as I said in response to the earlier question, that rebalancing is now occurring through the growth of manufacturing and exports and through business investment, which is where it needs to be.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T4. Small businesses are the engine of growth and jobs for our economy, and all the time that owners and managers spend dealing with red tape is time taken away from expanding their businesses, so what have the Government done to reduce regulation on small businesses?

Higher Education Fees

Debate between Vince Cable and Andrew Selous

Thursday 9th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

Yes, of course I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. Of course the policy will be monitored, and it will reflect the evidence that emerges. We have put in place not merely a series of measures to protect low-income graduates, which we have done through the threshold, but a series of measures designed to help children from low-income families to go to university, notably by increasing the maintenance grant from its level under the previous Government, giving access to an extra 500,000 pupils.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I am extremely grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way. I wonder whether he could say something about how he sees the future position of English students relative to Scottish and Welsh students. Should we not be looking to secure a degree of fairness between families of similar economic circumstances across the United Kingdom in years to come?

[Vince Cable]

I believe, as the Government as a whole believe, in devolution. We believe that the devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have got to make their own decision, but the inevitable consequence of the tightening of public finance—a tightening that is happening under this Government, but which would happen under any Government—was bound to be a system of graduate contributions, which is what will happen throughout the UK. However, that is for those Administrations to decide.