Cable pledges contracts for small business

A serious boost to small business is on the way if a pledge to award Government contracts to the sector is realised.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said this week that the government still intends to award a quarter of all government contracts to small and medium sized businesses.

“Our policy is to ensure that 25 per cent of public procurement goes to the small business sector. We need to give access through small scale procurement,” Cable told listeners during a speech at a London business school.

He added that the government would focus on reducing the “administrative burden” of the procurement process on small businesses. The Business Secretary was speaking at the Cass Business School in London as he repeated his call on banks to do more to get credit flowing to small and medium-sized enterprises. He stressed that his role in government was to support enterprise and small business in Britain.

“The current risk aversion by banks in this sector will stifle recovery and, if it does, will actually rebound on the banks through bad debt,” he said.

Cable added that a reduction in bureaucracy and investment in technical education and infrastructure was the future for small businesses and business growth.