Yorkshire chosen for Business Bank HQ

THE Government announced this week that its new Business Bank is to have its headquarters in Yorkshire.

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The Business Bank, which was set up last year to help small companies struggling to secure financing from high street lenders, is to move to a permanent HQ in Foundry House, Sheffield and Business Secretary Vince Cable will announce a further £250m boost to the £1bn already committed to the project by the Chancellor. The move is set to create 100 new jobs.

The move was announced on Monday by Mr Cable and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Last month Vince Cable appointed Ron Emerson, a former executive of Standard Chartered, as the first chairman of the Business Bank. The Business Secretary declared that the bank was in a “substantial expansion phase”. He said it would unlock £10bn of financial support for expanding companies over the next five years.

Despite a range of smaller Government lending schemes, worth a total of £600m, having been folded into the Bank, it has faced criticism that it does not have enough firepower to compete in the market.

However Mr Cable said: “Since I announced this initiative more than 10,000 businesses have already been helped and this new money will help it do more of that. The British Business Bank is fixing a big long- term problem in our banking system and it is set to unlock up to £10bn of finance over the next five years to help small and medium sized businesses grow.”

 

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