Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Valerie Vaz and Matt Hancock(9 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)
10. What recent assessment he has made of the availability of finance for small firms and the level of lending by banks to small businesses.
The Minister for Business and Enterprise (Matthew Hancock)
Gross lending by the banks to small and medium- sized businesses has increased by 25% over the last year, and recent net lending figures have been positive. This week, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced Help to Grow, to boost scale-up finance, building on the success of our start-up loans.
Valerie Vaz
Fine words, but how does the Minister reconcile that with the Bank of England’s money and credit statistics, which say that lending to small businesses has fallen in the last quarter by £1 billion? Too many schemes and not enough action.
Matthew Hancock
On the contrary, the gross lending is up sharply—around a quarter over the past year—and there are also greater repayments as businesses that are becoming stronger are able to pay down some of their debts. That means that the net figure has been increasing in recent months. We need to look through the individual figures and see the bigger picture of the expansion. However, there is of course much more to do to recover from the banking crash that occurred in 2008.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Valerie Vaz and Matt Hancock(9 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Matthew Hancock
I agree very strongly with my hon. Friend. In fact, we have defunded more than 4,000 qualifications for under-18-year-olds in order to concentrate scarce resources on the qualifications that are valuable. Within apprenticeships, all the evidence shows that training while in work increases young people’s life chances, because it gives them the skills, as well as the knowledge and the behaviour needed to get a good start in a career.
Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)
Will the Minister say what support he will give care leavers to access high-quality apprenticeships?
Matthew Hancock
Through care to work, we have a specific programme to support care leavers to get into apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are part of our programme of ensuring that every young person in our country has the opportunity to reach their potential.