Heidi Alexander
Main Page: Heidi Alexander (Labour - Lewisham East)Department Debates - View all Heidi Alexander's debates with the Department for Education
(9 years, 5 months ago)
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Matthew Hancock
We are considering and reflecting on the will of the House as it was expressed this week, but be in no doubt that it is this Government who support pubs and publicans more than possibly any Government before: the first cut in beer duty in decades, two cuts in beer duty, and support through ensuring there is community support for pubs. We will not rest in our support for British pubs.
Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)
3. What estimate he has made of the contribution net trade will make to GDP over the next four years.
The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)
In March, the Office for Budget Responsibility expected net trade to make a roughly neutral contribution to growth until 2018. However, since GDP data methodology has recently been revised we will not have a fully updated view until December, with the OBR’s new forecast.
Heidi Alexander
Recent statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that the UK’s trade deficit has risen to £2.8 billion in September, up from £1.8 billion in the previous month. In the light of that, will the Secretary of State confirm that since the Government’s direct loan facility was launched a year ago to help businesses to export, only one firm has benefited from such support since it was announced?
Vince Cable
The hon. Lady is horribly out of date; dozens of companies are now benefiting from that new suite of credit facilities, which is one of a range of activities we are putting in place to support British exporters. When we entered office, about 27,000 companies were helped by UK Trade & Investment, but that is now up to 50,000, and the impact is already being felt in the big emerging markets, such as China and India, where there is very rapid export growth.
Greg Clark
My ministerial colleague quite rightly calls on me to mention the signal role played by Harwell and, indeed, many other space and scientific establishments across the country. It was a great day for UK science.
Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)
In response to my earlier question, the Secretary of State boasted that a number of firms were already benefiting from the Government’s direct lending facility. Will he name the firms, in addition to Carillion, that have benefited to date?
Vince Cable
I cannot name the firms, but I am happy to write to the hon. Lady with the names. UK Export Finance, which she asked about, is now providing a substantial range of export finance facilities, which were not available before and are contributing substantially to export growth.