Industry and Exports (Financial Support) Bill

Well, that is the evidence in at least 100 letters that my office alone has received. When our constituent businesses go to their bank, they are told that it does not have the information and that the staff have not been briefed or trained. We are left at best with confusion and, at worst, with no help at all. Let us take for example a small touring company based in Suffolk. It applied for help under the enterprise finance guarantee scheme to consolidate its overdraft, to release funds to advertise during the critical winter months. Despite the fact that the business was advised by Business Link that it was eligible—indeed, it was in the statement issued by Ministers—its high street bank turned it down. The result of that conflicting advice is that five staff have lost their jobs and there is real pressure on the firm's finances. The managing director said""what a joke this scheme is...business link have no idea what the banks want out of this scheme…all of these big shouts by the Government about placing money out there to help small business is all just propaganda...it's a disgrace"." That managing director is not the only one who is rightly upset. The FSB has just conducted a survey of its members. Six weeks on from the launch of the enterprise finance guarantee scheme, the majority of its members say that the banks are still not using it. It is no wonder that three quarters of the FSB members surveyed said they had no confidence in the Government's economic policies. The gap between Ministers' good intentions and their actions has, sadly, been evident for some time. Thus, in the last 12 years they have overseen the creation of some 3,000 business support schemes, only recently realising that that creates waste and is confusing for many businesses. In his opening remarks, the Minister mentioned the regional venture capital funds. When they were established, we were told that they were vital to plug the gap in which the private sector would not invest. I agree that there is a gap in equity funding for smaller enterprises, but what is not clear is why that state-backed scheme, led by the regional development agencies, is the best way forward. The latest figures show that some £250 million has been allocated to that scheme alone in the English regions. However, the value of the investments actually made was only £126 million, half of the available total. What happened to the other half? Did the demand that Ministers predict not exist, or were requests simply strangled by the scheme's red tape? As the Minister said, the second clause of the Bill specifically seeks to expand the funding provisions for exporters and would make some important technical changes. Something certainly needs to change when it comes to the balance of trade, because under this Government our balance of trade was nearly £40 billion in the red even before the recession. In more recent months, there was initial hope that the huge drop in the value of the pound—a drop of some 25 per cent.—would have helped to boost exports. However, the latest figures for January show that, while the volume of goods exported to EU countries rose, this was outweighed by a 16 per cent. plunge in exports to non-EU countries. The result that month was a net trade loss of £7.7 billion. It is clear that the UK needs significantly to strengthen the volume, and indeed the value, of its exports. In November, the Chancellor announced an extra £1 billion in his pre-Budget report to help small and medium-sized UK exporters. It was to be delivered by the Export Credits Guarantee Department in conjunction with the banks. It was to have been a temporary facility providing smaller exporters with better access to short-term working capital. Of course, the intentions sound good, but it has been difficult to find out what progress has been made, although we looked quite carefully. Finally, yesterday I was left to check the latest information from the ECGD. Perhaps I should share with the House what its website says:""The scheme is at an early stage, and there is no set timetable for its implementation."" Is it really the case that four months after a £1 billion scheme, meant to help people in this recession, was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Dispatch Box, no timetable has been set for its implementation? I hope that the Minister who replies to the debate will answer that question directly. If there is a set timetable, why does the Department not know, and if there is not a set timetable, what on earth have Ministers been doing? Let me turn to the main export credit scheme—the fixed-rate export finance scheme. I apologise for the endless litany of alphabet soup that the schemes seem to generate. That particular scheme is meant to be wound up in eight months' time, yet despite having planned the scheme's replacement since December 2007, Ministers are seemingly unable to explain to exporters how the new scheme will work. The Under-Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the hon. Member for Dudley, South (Ian Pearson), rightly said that exports are crucial, so can he tell me why it is that, just eight months before the introduction of a new scheme, when companies inquire they are not able to learn the details of the scheme that will replace the current programme? After all, many contracts that are being negotiated now will run way past December. When will businesses have an answer? A number of Members of this House have rightly raised the subject of the automotive industry, which has often been at the heart of the question about financial support. Car registrations have been falling for many months. In February, they fell again, by another 22 per cent. I had to double-check whether there was meant to be a decimal point in the middle of that, but the figure really is 22 per cent. for a single month. Meanwhile, in response, manufacturers have reduced production; indeed, many have suspended it. Thousands of people have either lost their job or face redundancy in the coming months. We should not forget the long supply chains in this sector that serve manufacturers here and abroad; the Minister rightly mentioned them. What they all need is clear and decisive action. In January, Ministers set out their plans for the sector. Sadly—I draw no comfort from this—the industry said that the plans were incomplete, had not even been authorised by the European Commission, and often completely failed to address the question of car sales. Quite rightly, the industry has continued to press Ministers to get them to spell out exactly what their package means in real money. As the Minister mentioned, last Wednesday he hosted a summit at which we were offered more details of the £2.3 billion automotive loan schemes. We welcome the news that Jaguar Land Rover is to get up to £27 million in support of a new, lighter vehicle. However, even that modicum of good news was overshadowed by a spat between Lord Mandelson and the Bank of England about who was, or was not, to blame for the long delays. How frustrating that must be for the junior Minister; he was able to push forward an initiative, but it was completely driven off the front pages by his own boss. While some Ministers are passing the buck, the car sector is becoming ever more frustrated. On a recent visit to the midlands, I talked to representatives of the industry there, and I have to say that in their responses, they were overwhelmingly negative towards the Government. Why, they asked, did they not even get a statement of aid until January, when car sales had been plummeting for at least four months before that? Why, in January, were the schemes not worked through, as they were in France and Germany? Why did it then take another month for basic EU approval to be sought and secured? Their concerns did not end there. In January, instead of being promised a package to aid the credit arms of car firms, we were promised that a junior Minister had been—I will get the phrase right—""tasked to draw up a plan"." It seems that the same Minister doubts the need for such a plan. Lord Davies was reported in the Financial Times last week as saying that credit insurance problems would solve themselves as corporate lending picked up. That is not the view of the CBI or the FSB. Indeed, the federation said that Lord Davies was "unrealistically bullish". The British Chambers of Commerce went further, and highlighted industry-wide difficulties with credit insurance. It said of the Minister for Trade and Investment:""It's very complacent to say that everything will sort itself out"." That is not the message that should come from the Dispatch Box. Perhaps in his reply to the debate, the Minister can put things straight. Will he specifically tell us, either now or in his reply, whether the Government will introduce a plan to tackle credit problems, or is the Government's plan on this issue simply to do nothing?