UK Parliament / Open data

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

I thank the noble Lord for his statement and, indeed, I thank all noble Lords for their contributions to this debate. I take it as being broadly supportive of what we are trying to do. That will come out in further stages of the Bill, but I take great heart from what is being said.

I want to make two quick points. First, I cannot emphasise enough the importance of certainty, not just for SMEs but in the whole business environment. Certainty must be there. People are making decisions and, in the green area, these decisions are for longer periods than normal, particularly as regards the payback period and the intensity of those decisions. We must be clear on this, and I will address that issue later when I talk about borrowing powers for the bank. Secondly, of course we cannot tie the Government’s hands too much, but a definitive statement in the Bill on the need to invest in SMEs is important. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
741 cc130-1GC 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
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