Some of you may have read my earlier piece on the
Government’s scheme for solving the problem of banks lending to small
businesses and the way billions of pounds would be made available under a
scheme to encourage bank lending to small businesses OR for mortgages. Sorry if you thought me cynical but now I feel
vindicated in saying that, at best, the money would go on mortgages. Why?
You will have heard Vince Cable and his latest
announcement on lending to small businesses to his party conference – not
Parliament as I would have thought more appropriate. This got my cynic-ometer running
again and made me think - oh well, the last idea didn’t work so they thought
they had better announce something else! In fact, this is the second time this ‘something
else’ has been announced but I assume he thought the media might notice it this
time if he announced it at a conference.
With these announcements there is usually not much
detail and this is true of this one in as much as further details will be
released later in the autumn. This one
was a few phrases for the party faithful to applaud and a few headlines for the
media. The reality is that the idea has
not yet been submitted to the EU for its permission for us to implement our own
economic policy, so that could stop it in its tracks.
Additionally, the idea will have backing of some Government
money (10%) but the rest will come from private capital from investors. I cannot make out how this will be achieved as
the “bank” will not deal direct with borrowers but through normal banks – this
of course means two bites of the cherry before it gets to the small business
owner.
Finally, Vince Cable has got to get it past his new
Conservative guard dog – Michael Fallon – and I think this will be even harder
than it was with Mark Prisk!!!
The Treasury response to the report on small business
finance from Tim Breedon (BOOSTING
FINANCE OPTIONS FOR BUSINESS) states:
“The Government also welcomes the suggestion of a
single delivery agency for Government support schemes. This provides a welcome
contribution to the debate on the role of Government finance interventions in
tackling market failures. The comparison with state-supported agencies in other
countries shows the different models available. The Government will examine the options and will need to consider the
evidence and rationale carefully, balancing any proposals for change with the
need to ensure continuity for existing schemes that work well, reporting
back later this year. “
This doesn’t look like that single delivery agency
for small businesses so will other suggestions follow?
My view still remains that it is up to us to sort out
the question of finance ourselves – the current Government cannot understand
what a micro business is, let alone the problems it faces.
Posted by Advisor Keith - 26 September 2012
Seems like even this pessimism was not extreme enough when you look at the amount of money that has been loaned to the Banks and the amount they in turn have loaned out!
ReplyDeleteAlthough you may argue that there is always a time lag when dealing with your Bank between you asking them to do something with your money and them actually doing it, this may be taking it a bit far.