Mr. Derek Butler:

There is definitely a need for more firepower at local level. We are here to speak for the 100,000 businesses which employ 500,000 people across this country and which have a disproportionate effect on rural communities in particular. They are in a fragile state. They are vital to local communities and our social fabric. We have reached a tipping point. The Government has the choice to either back small businesses in a way that has never been done before and recognise their importance to the communities located up and down this country or we let them fail and suffer the consequences. Those consequences would involve a more painful recovery, greater levels of unemployment and a recovery that cannot be fuelled by emigration and exports. We have that choice and it is going to be made in the next few weeks in the context of the July stimulus. Some 26 organisations have backed this plan. Before we came in today, I asked them if they had been consulted about the July stimulus and they said they had not. I can tell the committee that the July stimulus will be dead on arrival if SMEs are not listened to. Those programmes are not designed to be effective in the same way that they have been effective in other European constituencies. I implore the committee members to use whatever power they have to make sure that the July stimulus is of the magnitude, scale and appropriate design for small businesses so that we can ensure that the 100,000 businesses which employ 500,000 people are saved.