Date: 23rd April 2009
Summary
Budget 2009: Government business support providing real help
Detail
Government business support providing real help
The Government's Real Help business support package continues to deliver vital support for companies throughout the UK, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson will say today at the Small Business Finance Forum.
Key highlights of the Government's Real Help programme include:
* More than 2,500 eligible loans worth almost £290m have now been granted, or are being processed or assessed to assist businesses' lending needs via the Government's Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme;
* The first £1bn tranche of guarantees to support banks affected by the credit crunch lending to businesses under the £10bn Working Capital Scheme has now been completed;
* As part of the Budget, the Chancellor announced a scheme to provide up to £5bn of additional trade credit insurance to businesses which have suffered reductions in their level of cover. This will be delivered as part of the Working Capital Scheme and will help mitigate the cash flow constraints caused by this reduction in cover;
* The first investment offer letters through the Capital for Enterprise Fund have been sent out by Aberdeen Asset Management and Octopus Investment, who, alongside Capital for Enterprise Ltd, manage the £75m fund. The fund managers are in discussions with and are conducting due diligence on further companies and proposals worth some £60m of investment.
Lord Mandelson said:
"These measures continue to show that Government is providing real and targeted support to those businesses which need it most.
"Businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and I am determined that we do everything we can to support them through the economic downturn and equip them to emerge stronger on the other side.
"We are exploring ways to increase the supply of long-term growth capital to SMEs. This could include a Public-Private Partnership, similar to what became 3i, the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation, leveraging private sector capital to address gaps in growth finance and risk capital."
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