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Finance Bill

I do not accept the hon. Gentleman's conclusion, and I was about to make an extremely important point about the effectiveness of HMRC's business payment support service, which we introduced in November. It has addressed exactly his concerns about the survival of businesses, as it means that those businesses that for cash-flow reasons need to or would like to defer a tax payment can do so by ringing up HMRC. Very often, they can make an agreement on the spot in that call. More than 100,000 companies have benefited from the scheme, and between them they have deferred about £2.3 billion in tax. It is undoubtedly the case that a significant number of companies that would have "given up", to quote the hon. Member for Northampton, South (Mr. Binley), in the downturn have been able to survive, go on to do well and keep up with their repayments as well.