HC Deb 11 April 1983 vol 40 cc536-7
8. Mr. Geraint Howells

asked the Secretary of State for Wales if he is satisfied with the present state of the small business sector in Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Nicholas Edwards

I should like to see many more successful small businesses in Wales. The Government seek to improve the conditions in which small businesses can flourish in Wales as elsewhere. The enterprise package announced by my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer is especially helpful in this regard.

Mr. Howells

I am sure that the Secretary of State is aware that thousands of small businesses have closed during the past four years, especially in rural Wales. What plans has he to save the rest?

Mr. Edwards

Throughout the same period many more small businesses have started up. I have just received the latest national figures. They show that since 1980 there has been a net gain of about 20,000 small businesses. There are far more start-ups than losses.

Mr. Hooson

As Wales is a land of small businesses with a large proportion of its working population employed by small firms or self-employed, was not the Budget especially relevant to the needs of Wales?

Mr. Edwards

Yes.

Mr. loan Evans

Have not job losses of nearly 100,000 in the manufacturing sector and more than 30,000 in the steel industry had an effect on small businesses in Wales? Have there not been more liquidations and closures under the present Government than for many years past?

Mr. Edwards

I have just given the House the figures. Although there have been more closures and liquidations, there have also been many more start-ups than losses.

Mr. D. E. Thomas

Does the Secretary of State accept that many small businesses in Wales are directly or indirectly dependent on public expenditure through the contracts that they are awarded by local authorities and so on? When will the right hon. Gentleman understand that the reduction of public expenditure creates unemployment in the small business sector?

Mr. Edwards

Practically every small business that I come across wishes that the burden of rates and public expenditure could be reduced and advocates that as the greatest help that the Government could give.