PM: Business package a real help

Jan 14 2009

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has described the package for business announced as "real help now to deal with specific problems".

The Government earlier unveiled a multi-billion package of measures aimed at unblocking lending to small firms, including loan guarantees and a new enterprise fund to help companies struggling to access finance.

The measures include a £10 billion working capital scheme, securing up to £20 billion of short-term bank lending to companies with a turnover of up to £500 million.

The enterprise fund will be worth £75 million, made up of £50 million from the Government and the rest from banks and will be available for small firms which urgently needed equity.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said it was "crucial" that the Government acted now to provide help amid warnings that scores of smaller businesses were going bust every day.

Later in the Commons, Tory leader David Cameron accused the PM of copying Conservative policies, and demanded that he withdrew his claim to have abolished boom and bust.

He said the Government had imitated the Conservatives' proposals on jobs and loans, adding that the VAT cut had been "an expensive failure".

But Mr Brown insisted the current situation was a "global financial crisis", and said: "Nobody is copying the Conservative economic policy."

Mr Brown said the VAT cut was putting more money in the pockets of everyone, not just "for the few" that he said the Tories supported.