Oral Answers to Questions

Viscount Thurso Excerpts
Thursday 8th July 2010

(14 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Vaizey of Didcot Portrait Mr Vaizey
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Under the Budget we have set up a new enterprise capital fund, into which the Government have put £25 million. We are looking for additional private funding, but I certainly recognise the importance of the venture capital industry and venture capital funding for small businesses.

Viscount Thurso Portrait John Thurso (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
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SMEs offer some of the best potential for future growth, but the biggest barrier to that is access to finance—in particular, I am talking about the failure of the enterprise finance guarantee scheme, because of the Catch-22 that it is the banks that SMEs apply to that say no. What can my hon. Friend do about that?

Lord Vaizey of Didcot Portrait Mr Vaizey
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We are expanding the enterprise finance guarantee scheme by an additional £200 million, and we understand that it will support some £700 million of extra bank lending, but I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman about the problem of securing bank lending. We are due to publish a Green Paper on business finance before the summer recess. I hope that that will address many of the issues that are involved.