Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department has taken to increase the level of access to credit to businesses in Fareham constituency in the last 12 months.

The British Business Bank has brought together the management of all the Government lending and investment programmes into a single, commercially minded institution which makes finance markets work better for small firms, allowing them to prosper, grow and support the UK economy.

Between October 1st 2013 and September 30th 2014, six businesses in the Fareham constituency obtained loans which were supported by our Enterprise Finance Guarantee programme. The total value of these loans was £780,000.

In the same period the Bank’s Start Up Loan programme provided loans to 13 entrepreneurs in the constituency with a total value of £56,050.