§ Mr. Wallerasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he is in a position to give more details of the loan guarantee scheme.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe Government's new loan guarantee scheme is now open for applications from small businesses. The scheme is designed to enable the participating banks and the ICFC to make loan facilities available to new and existing customers in cases where they would not have been able to do so without the Government's guarantee. I have made it clear that I am very willing to consider applications from other banks not at present included within the scheme who have experience of lending to the small business sector. The scheme provides for new term-loans repayable over two to seven years and will be open to all types of small businesses—from the limited company to the sole trader—in most sectors of the economy including manufacturing, construction and retail distribution; the number of excluded activities is comparatively small. The scheme is described in a new Department of Industry leaflet, which lists the excluded activities, available from bank branches, ICFC area offices and through the DoI small firms service, telephone Freefone 2444.