HC Deb 20 July 1981 vol 9 cc5-6
4. Mr. Colvin

asked the Secretary of State for Industry what progress has been made on the business opportunities programme.

The Under-Secretary of State for Industry (Mr. John MacGregor)

The programme was launched on 5 May by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since then, publications on taxation, employment legislation and premises have been widely distributed, and Ministers have begun a programme of meetings throughout the country with local business men and their advisers. In the autumn and winter months there will be a series of major regional conferences, as well as many further smaller meetings.

Mr. Colvin

I am sure that the whole House will join me in applauding what my hon. Friend the Member for Norfolk, South (Mr. MacGregor), the Minister responsible, is doing to promote the business opportunities programme. Does he agree that with the passage of the Finance Bill, which will add the greatly improved business start-up scheme to the loan guarantee scheme that is already in operation, the Government will have created one of the most encouraging climates for investment in the smaller business sector ever in the United Kingdom? Therefore, will he ensure that during the recess other Ministers will join him in promoting the business opportunities programme so that the rest of the country will appreciate that that is the Conservative answer to the need for real job creation and a major element in the Government's plans for bringing work back to the rundown inner cities?

Mr. MacGregor

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his remarks. He was correct in what he said about the schemes. In the business opportunities programme meetings that I have attended, I have found a warm welcome for the business start-up scheme and the changes, which have more than met all the criticisms made at the outset of the scheme. As always, it is important that such measures should reach down to the people expected to benefit from them. That is the purpose of the programme. I assure him that I shall be joined by colleagues in the autumn and winter months in ensuring that.

Mr. Park

Does the Minister agree that there can be many schemes, but if the cost of borrowing is outside the reach especially of smaller businesses, all the confidence in the world will not put the icing on that cake?

Mr. MacGregor

Obviously the Government are anxious that the cost of borrowing should come down as circumstances permit. That is the purpose of our policies, and that would not be helped by the policies being urged on us by the Labour Party. However, if the hon. Gentleman considers the loan guarantee scheme he will find that the existence of the scheme and the capacity to borrow matters more to many small, growing businesses than 1 per cent. or 2 per cent. on interest rates. Small businesses have shown that by their response to the scheme.