Thursday, 14 May 2009

What could possibly go wrong?

From Growing Business:

Loan guarantee scheme extended to social enterprise

Social enterprise financiers will be eligible for government guarantees on loans worth up to £20m, it was announced this week. Business secretary Lord Mandelson told guests at a social enterprise summit that the government would guarantee loans from accredited lenders to Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) totalling £20m, in an extension of its Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme.

CDFIs provide finance to social enterprises, individuals and businesses in disadvantaged areas which often struggle to access mainstream bank loans "due to the higher risk associated with supporting the groups and communities to which they lend", the government said.

"In the current economic climate, [CDFIs] are an increasingly important source of finance and investment for small businesses and social enterprises that have been unable to access finance from banks," said Mandelson.

The EFG was launched last year with the aim of enabling an additional £1.3bn of capital to be lent to small businesses struggling to access finance following the credit crunch. Under the EFG, the government guarantees 75% of loans to viable beneficiaries.


Answers on a postcard, I'll publish the best few hundred as a book or something.

5 comments:

Dave H said...

"Sub Prime 2. This time it's laughable."

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, I struggle to think. Don't businesses provide goods and services; create jobs; generate tax revenues; make areas more desirable; and so on? All sounds good to me.

DH, OK, that's the title sorted.

JuliaM said...

"CDFIs provide finance to social enterprises, individuals and businesses in disadvantaged areas which often struggle to access mainstream bank loans "due to the higher risk associated with supporting the groups and communities to which they lend", the government said."

Isn't this exactly the kind of thing that Fannie and Freddie were up to in the States that started this whole thing off in the first place...?

Umbongo said...

Put "social" in front of anything and you know it's a bummer being either actual crapola or just plain mealy-mouthed (cf "social" justice, "social" housing). The good Lord M, being a Labour politician, would not describe any business actually creating wealth as "social" anything since it is manifestly anti-social (private wealth? ugh!!). Rather, he'd see it as something to rape and pillage.

JuliaM

You got there before me - dammit!

Bill Quango MP said...

Will this support social networking.
Time for your very own taxpayer funded Facebook / Myspace setup.
MWSocialSpace.