Small Businesses: Finance

(asked on 2nd September 2022) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to help unlock capital for SMEs in Britain.


Answered by
Felicity Buchan Portrait
Felicity Buchan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This question was answered on 16th September 2022

The Government has a wide range of levers to help SMEs across the country access the capital they need to thrive and grow.

The British Business Bank brings together a range of programmes, spanning debt and equity finance as well as regional funds, which help ensure that financial markets are working for SMEs. These programmes are supporting over £10.8 billion of finance to over 93,000 SMEs across the UK.

The Government provides three tax-advantaged venture capital schemes: the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs). These schemes are designed to encourage investment in higher-risk, early-stage companies which face some of the biggest challenges in accessing growth capital.

The Government is also working with industry to identify and address barriers to institutional investment into a broader range of assets, which could help unlock more capital for UK SMEs and improve returns for pension savers.

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