Oral answer to question provided on Thursday, 25 March 2010 in the House of Lords, by Lord Mandelson (Labour).

Taxation: Small Businesses

Answer: My Lords, the issue of small businesses’ access to finance has been at the forefront of my mind for the past 18 months. I am very glad that the Chancellor was able to announce yesterday the creation of UK Finance for Growth—it represents an overall £4 billion of funding for SMEs, including growth capital to meet the needs of those small businesses that seek to expand but cannot get hold of growth capital to the extent that they want—as well as further lending commitments between the Government, RBS and Lloyds. We also announced the creation of a small business credit adjudicator, which will work with SMEs struggling to secure finance to ensure that they are better treated by the banks. I know that all the small business organisations, as well as the CBI and the Institute of Directors, have given a very strong welcome to all these measures.

This is an answer to the Oral question asked on Thursday, 25 March 2010 by Lord Higgins (Conservative).

Question: My Lords, in the course of the noble Lord’s discussions with the Chancellor, did he also stress the importance of the provision of finance to small businesses? In that context, can he explain why, despite the process of quantitative easing, the actual figures for the growth in the money supply show a precipitous decline in the latest report from the Bank of England?

Secondary information