Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to improve access to finance for small businesses in (a) Kettering and (b) England.

Improving access to finance is the mission of the Government-owned British Business Bank, which addresses gaps in the finance market through guarantees, debt and equity finance. The bank is currently supporting around £5.2 billion of finance to almost 75,000 businesses across the United Kingdom, including through British Patient Capital, a £2.5bn fund for long-term equity investment.

From March 2012 to July 2018, the Start-Up Loans initiative delivered more than 57,000 loans across all parts of the UK, lending a total of £436 million and contributing to the creation of more than 56,600 jobs. Over the same period, 49 start-up loans with a total value of £366,644 were awarded to entrepreneurs in Kettering.

Access to invoice finance is an issue for many small businesses, because of terms in commercial contracts that prohibit or restrict them from assigning the value of their invoices. I have recently introduced regulations to ensure that any such contractual restrictions entered into after 31 December 2018, with certain exceptions, would have no effect and could be disregarded by small businesses and finance providers. This new measure is expected to provide a long-term boost to the UK economy worth almost £1billion.