Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating a similar scheme to the Small Business Investment Company in the USA.

The government is committed to supporting small businesses, recognising their vital role in driving economic growth and innovation. The government continually reviews its support for small businesses to ensure it remains effective and responsive to their needs.

The government will publish its Small Business Strategy in 2025 after the Phase 2 Spending Review. This will set out the government’s vision for supporting small businesses, from boosting scale-ups to growing the co-operative economy and across key policy areas.

The government already has schemes in place that deliver outcomes similar to the US’s SBIC scheme: providing finance to small businesses.

Currently, the UK offers a range of support mechanisms for small businesses, including the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), and the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) scheme which provide tax reliefs to investors who make new equity investments in high risk, early stage Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), in order to help them grow and develop.

Additionally, the British Business Bank plays a crucial role in improving access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through various programmes, helping them to grow and succeed. These include programmes which provide funding to professional equity and debt fund managers, as well as guarantees to enable high street lenders provide additional finance to SMEs.