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Finance Bill

The hon. Gentleman makes an extremely important point. He is right that this started with the global credit crunch and the restrictions on credit for companies across the country. As a result of the additional support we have given, particularly to RBS and the Lloyds group, clear lending agreements are now in place, under which lending must be substantially increased compared with last year. We are monitoring those lending agreements very closely. We are also working with other lenders across the country, because lending by foreign banks has dropped by more than £100 billion since the credit crunch began. The issue clearly goes much wider than the major banks that I have just mentioned. The hon. Gentleman might also be interested to know that the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is holding regional engagement meetings and events, bringing together senior regional banking executives and regional businesses to discuss how lending operates locally and to try to improve that.