Rayleigh and Wickford MP, Mark Francois, has welcomed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP’s announcement in the House of Commons a few moments ago of new ‘Bounce Back Loans’ specifically designed to help small businesses weather the COVID-19 Pandemic.
These new loans, which businesses will be able to apply for from next Monday, will allow businesses to borrow a sum equivalent to up to a quarter of their annual turnover, with a cap of £50,000. The Loans will be 100% backed by HM Government, who will also cover the interest charges for the first 12 months. The scheme has been deliberately designed with a simplified application process, with minimal bureaucracy, which is intended to get money into qualifying businesses bank accounts within days, rather than weeks.
Mark has been actively lobbying the Government on the already existing provision of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) for small businesses, after being contacted by several small businesses in his constituency complaining about being unable to access the scheme for a variety of reasons.
The banking and finance industry has now provided over £2.8 billion of lending to SMEs through the CBIL scheme as part of a broad package of support for UK businesses. Total lending under the scheme doubled in the week from 14 to 21 April, with an increase of £1.45 billion. However, given the amount of businesses struggling to access this package of support, to date Mark believes it had not gone far enough and so, a long with a number of other Conservative MPs, he has been pressing Treasury Ministers for a better alternative.
Commenting on the new ‘Bounce Back Loans’, Mark Francois MP said:
“I am delighted that the Chancellor has listened to representations from backbench MPs, myself included and has come up with a much simplified, much quicker scheme, optimised to get cash into the bank accounts of small businesses as fast as practically possible. This is good news and will help to defend many small firms, who might otherwise have gone bust during the pandemic.”
