Business: Coronavirus

(asked on 17th March 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that banks are encouraged to extend (a) credit lines and (b) favourable-terms loan payment holidays to keep businesses afloat and pay wages during the current covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 23rd March 2020

The Government is working closely with the banking industry to ensure that businesses can access the finance they need during this challenging period.

Last week, the Chancellor announced a package of measures to support businesses experiencing increased costs or financial disruption due to the coronavirus outbreak. This included the new Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, which launched today (Monday 23 March) and will support loans of up to £5 million in value, with no interest payments due for the first twelve months of the loan. This will help to give lenders the confidence to provide finance to businesses through this period of uncertainty, whilst helping businesses who are facing short-term cashflow issues.

In conjunction with these measures, the Bank of England has acted to help support business and consumer confidence at this difficult time. These actions include cutting interest rates, which will help bolster the cash flows of businesses and households through reducing the cost, and improving the availability, of finance. The Bank also announced a new credit scheme will also help support SMEs specifically, by providing incentives for banks to lend to these firms.

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