Oral Answers to Questions

Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts

Monday 24th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)]

6. What steps his Department is taking to support access to lending from credit unions.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

10. What steps his Department is taking to support access to lending from credit unions.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

Since 2006, the Department has spent more than £100 million through its growth fund to encourage credit unions. In addition, since March this year, a further £11.8 million has been invested. The Department is now conducting a study into how best we can support credit unions and will report shortly.

[Steve Webb]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his involvement with the all-party group on credit unions and his commitment to the cause. Jobcentre Plus is keen to work closely with credit unions, and we are currently piloting a scheme in Manchester and Newcastle in which jobcentres share office space to see whether they can assist credit unions at a local level.

[Jeremy Lefroy]

I declare an interest as a member of the Staffordshire credit union. For more lending, we need more saving. What steps are the Government taking to encourage payroll saving in credit unions?

[Steve Webb]

The process of long-term saving through auto-enrolment in workplace pensions is imminent, but there has been a big growth in workplace coverage of occupational workplace individual savings accounts, which is an encouraging development. We are looking to see what more we can do to encourage that trend.